Friendship on Fire
by do i need a pen name
Summary: Kim is content with being "the quiet one." It's the way things have always been and it works for her. Little does she know, this trait is about to be the thing that gets her noticed by the boy she's had a crush on for years. Life as she knows it is about to change forever.
1. Chapter 1

**a/n-I've always loved the Kim/Jared pairing, and one day I started writing a little story just for fun and it completely took off, so now I've finally decided to post it. I think updates will probably be about once a week, but maybe more often depending on how fast I write. Enjoy!**

_"Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses." –Ann Landers_

**Friendship on Fire**

**Chapter One**

It was a universally acknowledged fact that Kim was a stalker—universally here meaning 'in her own head.'

But, while she was, admittedly, a stalker, she was the type that made sure her obsessions weren't noticed by the rest of the world. And really, when all was said and done, she really had only one obsession.

His name was Jared Cameron.

And, for the record, although she _was_ a self-professed stalker, Kim often felt like 'stalker' was far too strong of a term.

Honestly, she only knew where his locker was because it was across the hall from hers. And their school was small, so if he wasn't in the same class as her, there were very few options of where else he could be, and she just happened to be very good at guessing…when it came to Jared. And really, it wasn't as if she knew where he slept at night, or anything—although she did know, for a fact, that his house was on the opposite side of the reservation from hers.

Little things—like knowing his favorite color (blue) and that he was always late for first period (History, their only shared class) on Monday and that his truck (a '92 Chevy, black not blue) had previously belonged to his dad—did not necessarily make her a stalker. It only made her keenly observant…of Jared. Just Jared.

Alright, so maybe the crush she'd had on him for years often got the best of her. But was any of it honestly _that_ bad if she knew that it was all she'd really ever have of him? As creepy as it sounded, she knew she'd always be able to watch Jared, if from a distance. In all of their years living in such a small town and attending an even smaller school together, not once had Jared Cameron ever seemed to notice her. Even after sitting right next to each other for practically an entire year in History, Kim wouldn't be surprised if he didn't know her name.

But, even if she knew it would never actually happen, Kim was content as long as she got to dream about the day that Jared would finally notice her—and as long as she got to see him every day when he sat next to her in History.

Which was why Kim was slightly distressed one day, just less than a month before the end of the school year, when Jared failed to show up for class; it was a Wednesday. On Thursday, she was anxious as she made her way into first period History—exactly five minutes before the bell, as usual. And once again Jared failed to show up, and the same again on Friday.

Kim knew it wasn't just History. Rumors spread quickly in such a small school, and Kim quickly found out from other classmates gossiping that Jared had not been in any of his classes—let alone seen—since Tuesday.

She forced herself not to worry over the weekend. He was probably just sick; that's why he hadn't been at school…or in contact with any of his friends. He would probably be better by Monday.

Except then he wasn't at school on Monday. Or Tuesday. Or any other day for the rest of the week. Kim was officially concerned that something was seriously wrong with Jared.

There was nothing she could do, however. Ignoring the fact that she was actually quite shy around people she didn't know, doing something drastic like going to his house to make sure his parents hadn't murdered him would make her into an actual stalker…and she supposed accusing the Camerons of murdering their only son wouldn't be the best first impression, either.

No, she would wait it out. Jared would come back to school and everything would be just fine. Why was she wasting so much energy worrying over him anyway? Honestly, it wasn't as if her concern for his wellbeing would ever come to light. She should really just move on with her life and attempt to concentrate more in class, rather than worry about where Jared could be or what could possibly be wrong with him.

Who knew, maybe this would actually help her finally get over Jared. Jared's continued unexplained absence could be the thing to finally help her get over her hopeless crush on the boy once and for all; it wasn't as if anything was ever going to come of her crush, anyway. This really could be for the best.

And that was why Kim had to continually convince herself that she was just concerned for her classmate every time her mind happened to drift to Jared. Especially when there were other people around…

"Kim! Kimmie!" For what was at least the fifth time just that morning, Kim was pulled away from her thoughts of Jared by the sound of her little sister's voice. Unfortunately, this was the one time that the younger girl had been the first to notice that Kim was no longer paying attention.

"Huh?" Kim asked, redirecting her attention to the little girl walking beside her.

"You weren't listening to me," Kylie said with a pout. Kim was sure she would have crossed her arms for the extra effect, but she obviously knew from experience that there was no way her older sister would be letting go of her hand while they walked down the main road that led to the Quileute school, even if Kim didn't otherwise appear to be paying her any attention.

"Yes I was," Kim half-heartedly tried to convince the little girl. She already knew where this conversation was headed.

"No, you weren't," Kylie insisted. "You had that funny look on your face again."

"What funny look?" Kim asked, hoping that Kylie wasn't about to say what Kim thought she was about to say.

"That look you get when you're thinking about your _boy_friend!" Kylie replied, a grin suddenly lighting up the eight-year-old's face.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kim said, shaking her head emphatically. "I didn't think I had a boyfriend."

As she had expected, this got a giggle out of Kylie.

"And would you look at that," Kim said, finally releasing Kylie's hand, "Here we are: another day at school."

"I don't think it's going to be a very good day," Kylie stated, suddenly serious.

"Of course it will be," Kim insisted. She pushed Kylie lightly in the direction of the entrance to the elementary school. "Now get in there. You don't want to be late and miss the good coloring sheet, do you?"

Suddenly, there was the briefest sensation of a pair of small arms throwing themselves around Kim's waist, a hurried, "Bye Kim!" and then Kylie was a blur of pigtails and pink backpack as she rushed into school.

At a slower pace, Kim made her way towards her own destination. This would be day fifteen without Jared…not that she was keeping count or anything. No, not at all. Fifteen was just a rough estimate. Completely correct, but an estimate nonetheless. Obviously.

But no matter how many days it had been since she had seen him, Kim really just hadn't been looking forward to school today. Most of it had to do with her first period history class, and surprisingly not because Jared wouldn't be there. No, there was a test today. Kim was definitely not a fan of tests, even if she did almost always ace them.

Fifteen minutes later found her seated in her assigned seat, test before her and pencil in hand, attempting not to rush through the exam before she forgot everything they'd learned in the past month. This was why she couldn't help but glance up in frustration when someone entered the classroom five minutes into the period and closed the door loudly behind them. Her angry glance turned into an awestruck stare rather quickly, however, when she saw who it was that had entered the room.

Jared.

Jared was back. But he looked different now. He'd had a bit of a growth spurt and filled out a bit in the weeks leading up to his absence, but this was something…different. Clearly he'd had one of those sicknesses that _didn't_ leave you looking as if you'd just been on death's doorstep. Because, quite frankly, Jared looked _good_. There really were no words to describe just how good he looked. And the hair…he'd _cut_ his hair. Kim couldn't help but admire him as he stood before the teacher's desk, having a whispered conversation with her.

Except now she was pointing him towards his empty seat next to Kim and he was turning around. Kim quickly put her head back down and attempted to concentrate on her work. So intent was she on making sure she didn't blatantly stare at the returned (quite possibly from the dead) object of her affections, Kim was surprised when she came to the end of the test. Funny…those usually took longer. Well, hopefully she'd actually filled all of the bubbles in correctly and hadn't just attempted to spell out Jared's name on her answer sheet…

Still avoiding looking at him, Kim stood up and made her way up to the front of the room to turn her test in.

"Thank you, dear," Mrs. Reynolds said with a warm smile as she accepted the test from Kim. "Could you do me a favor and let Jared copy your notes from the past few classes? I think it would help him catch up on all of the work he's missed."

Kim nodded silently and made her way back to her seat. But inside she was reeling.

Share her notes with Jared?! _Jared_ was going to use _Kim's_ notes? Oh no! She hadn't doodled his initials in her notebook had she? Wait…no. She always made sure never to do that in history. He might see that. And then he would finally know she was basically his stalker. Yes, it was safe to share her notes with Jared. Ah! She was going to share her notes with _Jared_!

And yes, Kim was fully aware of how over-excited this was making her. But it would mark the first time that she and Jared had actually interacted with each other all year. Or quite possibly in the entire time they had known each other; Kim's early childhood memories were rather dim, but she doubted that she and Jared had ever had any interaction with each other even then.

With a small smile on her lips, Kim sat back in her seat and reached into her bag, pulling her history notebook out. Then she looked over at him and bit her lip. He had his textbook open on his desk to the beginning of the chapter—obviously Mrs. Reynolds had told him to read it while everyone took the test—but he had fallen asleep with his head in his palm and his elbow resting on the desk. No matter how good he might look, he clearly wasn't recovered completely from his bout of sickness. And Kim would hate to bother him.

Softly, Kim slid her notebook on top of his textbook. Clearly it wasn't soft enough though, as Jared's eyes opened with a start.

"Mrs. Reynolds said to lend you my notes," Kim whispered.

For a moment, Kim wasn't sure that she had actually spoken loud enough for him to hear. But then he turned his head to look over at her, his mouth opening to presumably say a word of thanks, and then he made eye contact and froze.


	2. Chapter 2

**a/n—I completely forgot to mention the timeline of this story at the beginning of the last chapter, and I feel like that might be a good thing to at least be aware of. Never fear, though, I am rectifying that exclusion right now so that we're all on the same page.**

**I have attempted to stick to the timeline of the books as much as possible while also interpreting information that isn't exactly dated to the best of my ability (And, honestly, the best way it works for this story). So, the way I see it, the timeline goes something like this: This story begins around the end of **_**Twilight**_**, just before the beginning of summer vacation. At this point, Sam has been a wolf for nearly a year but has only very recently imprinted and broken up with Leah. He did not imprint **_**immediately**_** after phasing, but it seems like Jared did, as he imprints on a girl he sat next to all year, implying it's the end of the school year when it happens. Jared and Paul phasing roughly coincides with Victoria, James, and Laurent coming to Forks.**

**I hope all of that makes sense, and also thank you for the lovely reviews from the first chapter-they all made me want to update sooner than I'd originally planned (hint hint, nudge nudge). I'm glad people seem to be enjoying the story.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Two<strong>

Jared hadn't wanted to go back to school after discovering that he had inherited the ability to shape shift into a giant wolf whose purpose was to protect the tribe. No, he would have been perfectly content to remain a wolf all day, patrolling the perimeter of the tribal lands and making sure nothing…_unwelcome_ entered them.

But there were just three short weeks of school left before summer, now, and Sam said he _had_ to go back. Of course, that was mostly because Sam knew Paul didn't have a complete handle on his phasing yet, a lot of the time, and it would be best if Jared could keep an eye on him during the school day. Also, education was important, or so Sam had decreed.

Personally, Jared thought Paul just shouldn't come back to school, even if there were only three weeks left, but what Sam said was basically law, so here Jared was. A teenage werewolf stuck in school. No, wait, scratch that thought. He was a teenage werewolf stuck in school _with_ a truckload of make-up work from all of the days he'd missed since first phasing.

And Paul wasn't even in half of his classes.

Speaking of classes…he'd been so busy thinking about how much he'd rather be out running that he'd completely lost track of time.

And that was how Jared found himself speaking to his first period history teacher in a whisper five minutes after the bell signaling the beginning of class had rung.

"We're taking a test today," Mrs. Reynolds was saying, "But you won't be ready for that until next week, at the earliest."

Jared couldn't help but nod listlessly. Joy. So much work to make up.

"For today, just try to get caught up on the reading," Mrs. Reynolds continued, "And, once someone has finished their test, I'll have them give you their notes to copy."

Jared nodded once more, then turned around and made his way to his seat, completely ignoring all of the stares he was getting from everyone in the class. Well, everyone in the class except for the girl in the seat next to his. The corner of his mouth twitched in the barest hint of a smile. _Finally_. Someone who had something better to do than stare at him as if they'd thought they would never see him again, or to judge whether or not he was using steroids, as he'd heard a few people debating in whispers upon his arrival at school today.

After sitting down, Jared dutifully pulled out his textbook and flipped through the pages until he reached what he was mostly certain was the correct chapter. And then, after glancing up to make sure the teacher was no longer paying him any attention, he rested one elbow on his desk and promptly fell asleep with his face resting in his hand.

It was bliss after the few short hours of sleep he'd gotten after running the boundaries with Sam the night before.

And it was bliss that was interrupted what felt like seconds later when he heard, rather than felt, someone sliding something onto his desk. With a slight start, he opened his eyes, worried it was the teacher, ready to hand out a detention for sleeping in class. Because that was just what he needed right now: even more time spent doing anything school-related when he could be out running.

But then he heard a soft voice to his left. If it hadn't been for his newly enhanced hearing, he was quite certain he would have missed it.

"Mrs. Reynolds said to lend you my notes."

Oh yes, she'd mentioned something about copying notes, hadn't she? Hmm…and if the direction of the voice was anything to go by, apparently he was borrowing them from the girl who _hadn't_ been openly gaping at him as he sat down earlier.

Opening his mouth to thank her—for more than just the notes, not that she would know—Jared turned to his left, only to meet the most gorgeous pair of brown eyes he had ever seen.

And it wasn't just her eyes, Jared quickly realized. They were framed by the longest pair of lashes and set in a face that truly had no equal. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He couldn't look away. Indeed, he would be content to spend the rest of his life staring at this girl sitting next to him. Who wanted to spend their time running around as a wolf and hunting down vampires? _Not him._

He was pleased to see that she stared right back, and he smiled widely at her in response. Except…did she look confused about something? Oh, she had spoken to him, hadn't she? The correct thing to do was reply, wasn't it? Yes…that sounded right…

"Thank you," Jared barely managed to breathe out, gaze still locked on her beautiful face.

Unfortunately, this didn't appear to alleviate any of the confusion on her face. And now Jared was at a loss. Clearly she was looking for some kind of explanation to…something. And obviously Jared needed to be the one to give it to her. He'd do _anything_ for her.

Except now she wasn't looking at him anymore! Why wasn't she looking him anymore? Wait, where had that random person come from? And why had he handed a folded piece of paper to this beautiful girl? Oh dear, and why didn't Jared know her name? He was sure there had been someone sitting in the seat beside him all year. And he was _mostly_ positive that it was this girl…but why had he only just noticed her _now_? What was _wrong_ with him?!

But no! That wasn't important right now! Why was she frowning? What had been on that piece of paper? If the look on her face was anything to go by, it had upset her. What had it said?!

Oh no! And now it was getting even worse. She was getting up and throwing her bag over her shoulder, the piece of paper clutched tightly in her hand. Jared could only watch helplessly as she walked away from him and up to the teacher's desk. What was _happening_?!

"Mrs. Reynolds, I need to leave," He clearly heard her whisper to the teacher.

"You go right ahead, dear," Mrs. Reynolds responded after glancing over the note that the girl showed her. Jared couldn't help but get slightly put off by this. Why did the teacher get to know what the girl's note said? And, more importantly, why was she leaving the classroom? What was going on? Jared didn't want her to leave! He wanted to stay with her forever.

That was it! He shouldn't have thanked her earlier. Clearly he should have asked her to marry him instead, and then they could be together forever. Ooh…but maybe that should wait until he figured out what her name was.

Hmm…he could do this. He was sure he'd seen her before—though clearly he'd never looked at her properly. And obviously she'd been sitting next to him in history all year, of that much he was certain. History…Oh!

Quickly, Jared flipped open the cover of the girl's notebook. He made sure to take extra care though; he wouldn't want to damage anything that belonged to someone so perfect. That accomplished, he haphazardly scanned the inside cover, searching out the elusive—and incredibly important—first name he just couldn't seem to come up with on his own.

_Kim._

Her name was Kim. It was as perfect as the rest of her. Jared gave a sigh of contentment. And that was when his brain finally kicked in.

What _the hell_ had just happened to him?

But even before he finished asking himself the question, he knew what the answer must be. He'd seen this behavior before…or, rather, he'd heard it…thought it, even. The way he'd just been obsessing over Kim (_Ah, so perfect_) was just the way Sam always seemed to be thinking about Emily. His imprint.

Jared frowned to himself. No, that couldn't be right. Sam had explained imprinting to him. It was supposed to be rare. So rare that Sam hadn't understood it at first when it happened to him rather recently. And then that got Jared thinking about when Sam imprinted. If that's really what was going on here, he hoped things worked out better for him and Kim. Hopefully she wouldn't be dead set against spending any time with him because he'd dated a girl who was as good as her sister. Oh no! What if Kim _did_ have a sister? And what if Jared _had_ dated her? What if he'd completely broken her heart and Kim hated him! That would explain why she hadn't paid him any attention when he'd gotten to class today…Kim probably _hated_ him.

And speaking of class…it seemed like everyone was standing up now. Ah yes, the bell had rung. It was time for the next class. Jared stood up as well.

Maybe Kim would be in his next class! Was it bad that he didn't know if she would? Actually, he knew it was bad. It was _so_ bad. He should know whether or not he had any more classes with Kim. No, wait. Forget about classes. He should know where Kim had gone. But how would he find that out?

By this point, Jared had slowly made his way up the aisle and was almost to the door, but then he caught sight of Mrs. Reynolds preparing the room for her next lesson. That was it! Kim had shown Mrs. Reynolds the note.

"Um…excuse me," Jared said after the briefest moment of hesitation.

Mrs. Reynolds looked up, a pleasant expression on her face. "Can I help you, Jared?"

"Uh…" How to phrase this without sounding like a crazed stalker? Jared looked around wildly until his gaze landed on the notebook he was still holding. "Kim lent me her notes," He said quickly, holding the notebook up for the teacher to see. "But then she left, and I don't know where to find her to give them back."

"Oh, Kim had to leave," Mrs. Reynolds replied, a look of concern crossing her features. "There was some kind of emergency with her sister and they couldn't reach her mother. But I'm sure Kim wouldn't mind if you kept her notes for a bit longer. I'm sure you'll need some more time to copy all of them, anyway."

"Yes…time…" Jared muttered distractedly.

"Now, you should really be getting to your next class," Mrs. Reynolds told him pointedly, nodding in the direction of the door. "You don't want to be late for that one as well. I dare say you've already missed enough school."

"Yeah…class," Jared muttered now, still distracted as he spun on his heal, almost mechanically, and exited the classroom.

Well, at least he'd learned something good. There wasn't anything wrong with Kim, at least. Nothing bad had directly happened to _Kim_. But it wasn't all good news. She really did have a sister. This might not end well.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Kim was used to having to take care of her younger sister. For as long as she could remember, it had been Kim who got Kylie ready for school, and Kim who walked Kylie there, and Kim who picked her up at the end of the day, and Kim who watched her all afternoon, and Kim who—well, suffice it to say, it was Kim, more often than not, who appeared to be Kylie's primary caregiver. Not that their mother didn't try. It was just difficult for her to juggle two jobs and raising her children, and Kim so conveniently never seemed to have anything better to do with her time, truth be told.

But that didn't mean that, when all was said and done, Kim didn't resent her mother just the slightest bit when situations such as this one arose.

"Home?" Kim repeated uncertainly, frowning slightly at the nurse.

It was lucky she'd finished her test so early, it turned out. Kylie had gotten sick during class and the school hadn't been able to reach their mother, so they'd sent for Kim, next door in the high school. And, unfortunately, the prognosis was bad enough that they apparently wanted to send Kylie home for the day. And that meant that Kim would have to miss the rest of the school day as well, in order to care for her sister in place of their mother.

"Home," The nurse confirmed with a nod. "This one has a temperature. There's been a flu going around, it's no surprise she caught it. She's at least the third child sent home this week."

Kim's frown deepened. But then her gaze drifted over to her sister, lying on the narrow cot looking completely horrible and completely helpless, and Kim let out a defeated sigh.

"They'll let me sign her out?" Kim questioned. "Since they couldn't get a hold of our mom?"

The nurse nodded readily. "We couldn't get a hold of the other emergency contacts either."

"But they'll let me out of school, too?" Kim asked now, still doubtful.

"You just explain things to the secretary, dear," The nurse said, already moving to help Kylie sit up.

And that was how Kim found herself back at home less than two hours after she had left it that Wednesday morning.

"I told you it was going to be a bad day," Kylie murmured sleepily as Kim tucked the little girl into her bed in their shared bedroom.

"Yes, well you could have given me a heads up that this was how it was going to turn out," Kim replied softly, brushing the hair out of Kylie's eyes.

"I told you my tummy hurt at breakfast," Kylie said softly, her eyes drifting shut. "You were probably too busy thinking about your boyfriend…"

Kim shook her head with a small smile, then stood up from the bed and exited the room to let Kylie sleep. The things that girl came up with…

Of course, Kim couldn't help but reason to herself, Kylie was probably right. She probably had been thinking about Jared that morning at breakfast when Kylie complained about not feeling good—not that Jared was her boyfriend, of course. No, that was definitely not true.

And speaking of Jared, he was finally back at school! It figured that Kim would have to leave literally right after he returned, though. But for the brief time that they were both there, what had been up with him? They had never interacted before, and suddenly he was staring at her like she was the eighth wonder of the world just because she'd lent him some notes from class on their teacher's orders? Because, honestly, there was no other description for the expression on his face as he stared at her.

It was just plain weird, is what it was.

But Kim knew that this wouldn't stop her from obsessing over Jared. Indeed, this would probably lead to even more daydreaming, if Jared kept looking at her like that. Well, if he kept looking at her like that if _she_ ever went back to school. Kim was already anticipating a fight with her mother if Kylie needed to stay home from school again tomorrow.

For the rest of the day, Kim barely had a spare moment to dwell on this, though. What the school nurse had failed to mention was that Kylie had apparently caught the _stomach_ flu, and so Kim was kept extra busy caring for her younger sister.

And, as it turned out, the next day would be more of the same, just as Kim had expected. Her mother had called both Kim and Kylie out of school sick; Kylie because she still wasn't feeling well and Kim because someone needed to stay home with the second-grader. Needless to say, Kim was not at all happy about these arrangements.

"This is completely ridiculous!" Kim protested for the umpteenth time, following her mother to the front door. "I can't just miss school like this! I have finals soon!"

"I know, and I'm sorry," her mother replied, already halfway out the door. "But I've already explained to you that I couldn't get off of work, and you know there's no one else nearby. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

"You've been saying that for years," Kim said softly, a frown upon her face. But her mother was long gone. She was speaking to a closed door.

Shaking her head, Kim made her way back to the kitchen and began cleaning up her breakfast dishes. That done, she pulled a cup out of the cabinet and filled it halfway with orange juice. Of course, this only caused Kim's frown to deepen as she saw that they were almost out of juice. There was no way her mother would remember to pick any up on her way home and Kim couldn't leave Kylie at home to run to the store. Kylie would just have to make do with water later.

With a sigh, Kim picked up the cup of juice and headed to the back of the house. Pushing open the door to the bedroom she shared with her sister, she saw Kylie finally appeared to be asleep after staying up half the night. Kim began to back out of the room once more when her name was called.

"Kimmie?" Kylie's scratchy voice asked softly. "Is it you?"

"Hey, I thought you were asleep," Kim said in equally soft tones, entering the room and going to sit on the edge of her sister's bed.

"Did Mommy leave?" Kylie asked, her head poking out from under her blanket.

"Yes," Kim replied, reaching out a hand to brush the strands of sweaty hair out of Kylie's face. "She had to go to work. It looks like it's just you and me today."

"I'm sorry I'm sick," Kylie's voice sounded small now. "I know you really like school."

"I like spending time with my favorite sister more," Kim told her.

"You're my favorite, too," Kylie said with a tired smile.

Kim set the cup of juice on the small table that separated her bed from Kylie's.

"You should really try to get some sleep, sweetie," Kim said now. "It will help you to get better."

"Will you stay with me?" Kylie asked through a yawn.

"I guess I could use a nap, too," Kim agreed easily. She bent over and pressed a soft kiss to Kylie's warm forehead as the younger girl's eyes fluttered shut. Then she stood and took the few short steps to her own bed and lay down. Her last thought before she finally drifted off to sleep as well was that, if she was going to have to stay home to take care of her sister, at least Kylie was a good kid.

Several hours later, Kim awoke to find Kylie still sleeping, a peaceful expression on her face. Content that apparently the worst of Kylie's illness had passed, Kim stood with a stretch of her arms. And then she simply stood in the middle of the bedroom for a moment. What on Earth was she going to do with herself for the rest of the day?

She hadn't had any homework in the only class she'd made it to the day before, and obviously she didn't have anything for today either. She had always made sure that she and her sister kept the house in a reasonably neat condition to make things easier on their mother, so it wasn't as if she could occupy herself with cleaning anything. And it wasn't as if she could just laze around in front of the television because there was never anything good on at this time of day anyway.

At that precise moment Kim's stomach made a very loud noise, alerting her to the fact that she'd barely eaten anything in the past twenty-four hours. Well that was definitely something for her to do. But perhaps a shower was in order first…

Another half hour of boredom alleviated, Kim was just stepping out of the shower when she heard the distant sound of someone knocking on the front door. She paused, one hand outstretched towards a towel to dry her hair with. For all that they lived on a street with several other houses, it wasn't very often that anyone ever stopped by to see anyone at Kim's house. In fact, Kim couldn't even remember the last time someone had. The distinct lack of use was probably why they'd never bothered getting the doorbell fixed…

The knocking continued, more insistent now.

With a slight frown, Kim reached instead for her bathrobe, hanging on the back of the door, and pulled it on quickly. She pushed her dripping hair over her shoulder and hurried for the front door, reaching it just as whoever was on the other side knocked yet again.

Yanking the door open, Kim couldn't contain the look that was equal parts shock and confusion that spread across her face when she saw who was standing on the other side.

"_Jared?_"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

As it turned out, Kim was not in Jared's next class. Nor was she in either of his other two classes that morning. Jared wouldn't let himself be depressed by this, however. Even if they only apparently shared the one class period, everyone in the small school had lunch at the same time. He would see Kim in the cafeteria. Jared could barely contain his excitement.

She wasn't there.

"Where could she be?" Jared asked helplessly, scanning every face packed into the cafeteria for the third time in the past two minutes. "We aren't allowed to go anywhere else during lunch!"

"Calm down, man," Paul said, the voice of reason for once. "The bell only just rang; she could be running late from whatever class she just had. Or maybe you missed her—"Jared shot him a quick scathing look at this before returning to studying and then dismissing each face in the room "—Alright, so maybe you just can't see her then. Tell me what she looks like again?"

"She's beautiful," Jared said immediately, a sigh escaping his lips as his eyes glazed over slightly.

"O-_kay_," Paul said slowly and with a roll of his eyes. "Not the most detailed description, but I guess I can work with that…you said her name was Kim?"

Jared nodded happily and Paul frowned.

"I don't think I know anyone named Kim," He admitted.

"I…" Jared hesitated and his expression fell. "I didn't actually know what her name was until I found it in her notebook," He said, his fingers drumming restlessly on the aforementioned notebook, which was currently sitting on the table next to Jared's mound of untouched food and which he had been carrying around with him all morning. "And I…well, I know we must've gone to school together for ages, because once I actually thought about it a bit I realized that I _do_ recognize her, but I don't actually remember ever talking to her before…"

"You'll make up for it in no time, I'm sure," Paul reassured him, in between bites of his sandwich, easily picking up on the guilt in Jared's tone. It's was all too similar to what Sam sounded like most days, though his guilt was for a different reason.

"Not if I never see her again!" Jared couldn't help but point out. "She had to leave class this morning because of an emergency. What if she had to leave school and she's _never_ coming back?"

Paul simply stared at his friend for a moment before speaking, "If it's going to turn me into such a drama queen, I _really_ hope I never imprint. It's bad enough with Sam constantly mooning over Emily not wanting anything to do with him. But now add you to that…I don't know how I'm going to survive."

"Sorry," Jared said immediately. "It's just…I can't help it…"

"I get it—or, at least, I _will_ get it better once we do our patrol later," Paul amended.

"It's not like I fully understand it," Jared said ruefully. "You said you don't know her…_I_ don't even know her, and I'm completely obsessing over her."

"Well, you know what they say," Paul said, digging back into his lunch, causing Jared to realize that he was incredibly hungry and he hadn't made a move to eat anything yet. "The first step towards getting help is admitting that you have a problem."

"It would _help_ if I could just find her," Jared frowned into the bag of chips he had just opened.

"I'll be sure to keep an eye out for a beautiful girl named Kim this afternoon in class," Paul told him. "And I'm sure you'll do the same, which is the best we can do for now."

It was a sad day when Paul was the voice of reason, not that it matter since Kim was not in any of Jared's afternoon classes either. And to make matters worse, he hadn't caught even a glimpse of her in the halls. She really must have left school after History that morning.

As Jared leaned casually against the wall just outside of the front doors to the high school at the end of the day, waiting on Paul as usual, the only thing that could comfort him was the fact that at least Kim had left for someone else's emergency. She wasn't the one who was sick, or had been deathly injured, or—

"I found her!" Paul's excited voice rang in Jared's ear, causing him to jump slightly, as he had been distracted thinking of all of the completely horrible things that could be the reason he wasn't staring into Kim's beautiful eyes at this precise moment.

And then Jared actually took the time to process what Paul had said.

"What?" He questioned immediately, his expression brightening. "Kim? You found her? When? Where is she?"

"Well, kind of," Paul said hastily. "It was in my English class just now. There was a girl named Kim who was absent—and honestly, how many other Kim's could there possibly be in La Push?"

"She was absent?"

Paul nodded. "But I think I know the girl you're talking about now. Is she kind of quiet?"

"Er…sure…" Jared offered, trying to recall if he had ever heard the girl who sat beside him in History speak at all during class that year.

"But she always knows the right answers when the teacher calls on her?" Paul continued. "I'm pretty sure she aces all of the tests and homework, too."

"She was the first person to finish the test in History this morning," Jared said thoughtfully.

"Then we've found your girl," Paul said. "I'm sure she'll be back tomorrow and you can proclaim your undying love for her, and then you can introduce us. Now come on, let's go find Sam. I'm sure he'll be really interested to learn all of this imprinting business isn't as rare as he seems to think."

But Paul was wrong, Jared quickly discovered the next morning. Kim was not back at school the next day. All throughout History, Jared sat barely paying attention to the lecture, choosing instead to stare at Kim's empty seat, a torrent of thoughts running through his head. By the end of the class period he had made up his mind, and quickly made his way up to the teacher's desk as everyone was leaving the room for the second day in a row.

"Mrs. Reynolds?"

"Yes, Jared?" Mrs. Reynolds turned away from the chalkboard she had been erasing. "Did you need any help with the make-up work I gave you earlier?"

"No, I think I'm set with all of it," Jared indicated the rather thick folder she'd given him before class had started that day—when he'd gotten to the classroom much earlier than was necessary in the hope that he would get to see Kim. "I was just wondering if I could have another copy of today's homework? I was going to see if I could stop by Kim's house later today and maybe go over those notes she gave me, and I thought I could give her the homework, since she wasn't here."

"That's very thoughtful of you, Jared," Mrs. Reynolds moved over to her desk now. "And I'm happy to see that you're taking some initiative to catch up with everything you missed."

Once Jared had escaped her clutches—_ahem_, left the room with another copy of that day's homework, he went through the rest of the day with a single-minded focus. Obviously Kim wasn't able to come to him, so he was going to go to her.

"I know you guys are supposedly perfect for each other," Paul commented as they walked out of school together that afternoon, "But I'm starting to get the impression that this whole imprinting business is just an elaborate excuse to be a stalker."

Jared rolled his eyes but didn't say anything.

"But I guess some girls go for the whole creepy stalker thing," Paul continued with a shrug. "And I hope for your sake that Kim is one of them."

"I'm just bringing her some homework," Jared finally spoke up.

"Yes," Paul agreed, "You're bringing her some homework because you _flirted her address out of the school secretary_."

"Exactly," Jared said, "If I was a stalker, I'd _obviously_ already know where she lives."

"You're hopeless," Paul informed him frankly.

"I'll see you later," was all Jared said in reply before the two parted ways—Paul to go run patrol with Sam and Jared to finally be reunited with Kim after the most agonizing thirty hour and forty-one minute separation of his life. A smile spread across his face at the thought that he would soon be face-to-face with Kim once more.

However, when he finally found himself in front of Kim's house, the smile slowly faded from his face. What if Paul had a point? What if Kim thought he was stalking her or something? What if she got so freaked out by Jared just randomly showing up at her house that she refused to ever see him again? What if—but no, he couldn't think like that. There had literally been nothing else on his mind all day but what he hoped to accomplish this afternoon. He knew what he needed to do and he wasn't going to back out now.

And so, firm in his resolve, Jared made his way to the front door of Kim's small house—the standard size of just about everything in La Push except for him and his two pack brothers—and knocked. And then he waited.

And waited some more…

And kept waiting…

With a frown, he knocked again, a bit harder this time in case no one had heard it the first time.

When his knocking continued to go unanswered, Jared started to get worried. What if the emergency with her sister had been really serious? What if it had led to something happening to Kim and that was why no one was coming to answer the door?

Frowning now, Jared knocked on the door for the third time. His hand was still held up in midair when the door was unexpectedly yanked open to reveal Kim standing there.

"Jared?" She asked, causing a wide grin to immediately split across his face. _Kim knew his name_. Needless to say, Jared was elated.

"Hey, Kim," Jared said happily, still smiling brightly at her.

She frowned slightly. "What are you doing here?"

She hadn't spoken in a hostile tone, but her words still caused Jared's smile to drop slightly. And why was she frowning like that at him? Did she not want him here? Should he not have come? Should he really have listened to Paul and Sam's advice and waited for her to come back to school?

"I…" Jared hesitated. "Well, I brought your homework."

Her expression cleared immediately, and Jared relaxed. Of course she had questioned him; it wasn't as if he had ever spoken to her before, she had no reason to expect him to show up at her house. But this was clearly a good place to start.

"It figures that the one day I miss school is the one day we actually get assigned some homework in History," She said with a wry grin.

"Oh…er…well, actually," Jared begin, unable to help squirming a bit under her gaze, "I mean, yes that did happen, but I…well, I brought you homework from _all_ of your classes."

"But…you aren't in any of my other classes," Kim said now, and Jared winced. Okay, so he really was coming off as a ridiculous stalker.

"I asked around?" Jared offered.

"Well, thanks, I guess. I—" Kim stopped abruptly as another voice sounded from within the house.

"Kimmie?"

"Shoot," Kim muttered under her breath, hastily spinning on her heel and running in the opposite direction.

Making a split-second decision, Jared shrugged and let himself in, closing the door that Kim had left open behind him before following the sound of her footsteps through the house. He found her in a bedroom at the back of the house, just sitting down on the edge of a bed that otherwise seemed to be a pile of blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals. As he hesitated in the doorway, it finally registered in his mind that her hair was dripping wet and the only clothing she appeared to be wearing was a bathrobe that only hit mid-way up her thigh in her current seated position.

She was completely gorgeous.

"Is everything alright?" Kim was asking the pile of blankets in a soothing voice.

"You said you would stay with me," A small voice sounded from within the pile. Jared couldn't place the voice which probably meant he had never heard it before—a very good thing, as it probably meant he really hadn't ever dated her sister. Now _that_ would have been awkward.

"I was only in the shower, silly," Kim replied. "Are you feeling any better? Do you think you want to try some food?"

"Yes," The voice said. "Could I have some more juice, please? I finished what you brought me earlier."

Kim's face morphed into a frown, which caused a pang in Jared's heart. Why was she upset? She couldn't be upset!

"You drank all of the juice we have, sweetie," Kim told her. "You're going to have to wait for mom to come home so that someone will be here with you while I go buy more."

"I could go buy you some," Jared spoke up without a second thought.

Kim jumped noticeably, causing Jared to wince again; obviously she hadn't noticed that he'd followed her…just one more thing to add to the list of reasons why he was a stalker. At the same time, the pile of blankets shifted to reveal a little girl now sitting up in bed. She couldn't have been more than about nine.

Well. Now Jared knew for sure he hadn't dated Kim's sister. Paul and Sam were never going to shut up about this when they found out about this later, when Jared would quite likely accidentally think about the incident after phasing. Damn.

"Who are you?" The little girl asked—hmm…Jared would really have to learn what her name was…

"I'm Jared," He told her. "I go to school with your sister."

The girl's eyes widened dramatically. "Jared?" She repeated. "Are you _Jared Cameron_?"

"I'll make you some soup!" Kim said suddenly, speaking quite loudly, for some reason that Jared couldn't determine. "You'd like some soup, wouldn't you, Kylie?"

"But your boyfriend said he'd buy me juice," The little girl—Kylie, apparently—protested, pouting.

She was kind of a cute kid, Jared couldn't help but think. And obviously Kim cared a lot about her sister, since she didn't appear to be sick and had stayed home with the sole purpose of taking care of the little girl that day. And if she was important to Kim, then she was obviously going to be important to Jared, too. And…hang on, had she referred to him as Kim's _boyfriend_?


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Well, it was official. Kim's life was over. She was going to die of embarrassment. Right here. Right now. This was it. Game over.

Kylie had always denied it vehemently, but now Kim had definite proof that the little sneak had read her diary. What had she ever done to the spirits to deserve this?

"His name is Jared, and he's just a classmate," Kim informed her sister, attempting to sound stern, but failing horribly due to her intense mortification. "And he's not buying you anything because he's just here to bring me the work I missed today. That's it."

Even though she was studiously attempting not to make eye contact with Jared—a.k.a. the most gorgeous man alive—due to her embarrassment, Kim couldn't help but notice the hurt expression that flashed across Jared's face before he spoke.

"I really don't mind," He told her earnestly, and Kim was instantly reminded of a dog trying to please its owner.

"It's okay, really," Kim told him. "Kylie will be fine without it, won't you?"

"But I _want_ to," Jared insisted before Kylie could say anything. He turned from Kim to face Kylie. "What kind of juice do you want? Orange? Grape? Cranberry? Pineapple? Nectarine? Boysenberry?"

"Orange!" Kylie exclaimed before Kim could make any further protests, giggling at all of the options Jared had listed off. "Please!"

"Okay, I'll be back in like ten minutes," Jared told her, sent one last smile in Kim's direction, and then disappeared down the hall. Kim was vaguely aware of the sound of the front door closing behind him.

What _the hell_ had just happened?

"Kimmie?" Kylie's voice sounded from somewhere to Kim's right. "Kimmie, are you okay?"

"I…I…" Kim found herself unable to even form a coherent thought, let alone vocalize anything. Seriously though, what had just happened?

Jared had come to her house. Jared Cameron. _The_ Jared Cameron. Jared Cameron had come to Kim's house. To see Kim. Jared had come looking for her. For Kim. The boy she had secretly been in love with for years had come to her house looking for her.

Clearly she had slept through some kind of apocalypse this morning, because there was no way this was real life.

"Kimmie!" Alright, so maybe the deafening shout right in her ear was proof that she wasn't actually dead quite yet.

"_Ow_…" Kim said pointedly, leaning away from Kylie.

"You were making funny noises," Kylie informed her sister, her young face overly serious. "I was just making sure you were okay."

"Thanks for that," Kim said, rubbing her ear.

"Your boyfriend is very nice," Kylie said happily, apparently over her concern for her sister. "I like him."

"He's not my boyfriend," Kim replied immediately. "That's the most he's ever said to me in my entire life. I didn't even think he knew I existed. He…I…I don't know what's going on…"

"Well, he's buying me orange juice right now," Kylie told her, still smiling away. "He's very nice," She repeated. "Hey, Kimmie?" She asked suddenly.

"Yes?"

"Why are you wearing a bathrobe?"

Kim's eyes widened in alarm as she looked down to see that she was indeed still clothed in her bathrobe and nothing else.

Oh. Dear. Lord. Jared Cameron had come to her house…been in her bedroom…and she was only wearing a bathrobe.

This situation was officially beyond mortifying.

There was really only one solution Kim could see for all of this. The Middle of Nowhere, Washington just wasn't going to cut it. She was going to have to hide out in Antarctica for the rest of her life. She wouldn't have to embarrass herself through another afternoon like this one if she was a hermit living in the most inhospitable place on the planet.

"You should probably get dressed." Kylie's voice broke Kim out of her thoughts once more. "I think Jared liked your bathrobe because he kept staring at you, but if Mommy comes home soon she'll probably tell you that it's not polite to wear it when you have company over."

Kim groaned—Kylie was right, there was no way Jared wouldn't have noticed what she was wearing—and stood up to find something to wear that would hopefully be presentable.

Ten minutes later found the two sisters in the kitchen, with Kim—who was now fully dressed with her damp hair tide back in a braid—standing at the stove heating up some soup while Kylie sat at the table still in her pajamas. That was where they were when Jared returned, having let himself in through the front door, a paper bag in hand.

"Sorry it took so long," Jared said immediately, setting the bag on the counter beside the fridge. "There was a line."

"Can't have more than five people in _there_ at a time," Kim muttered sarcastically. Her gaze remained on the soup she was stirring over the stove, but she saw Jared's grin out of the corner of her eye. Was this really real life?

But really, it was a legitimate question. _Jared Cameron_ had come to bring _Kim_ homework that she'd missed, and then he'd gone out of his way to run a completely unnecessary errand for her, and now he was laughing at her pathetic jokes? She was probably still sleeping. Or, even more realistically, Kylie had gotten her sick and this was a fever-induced hallucination. Yes, that made perfect sense.

"Oh!" Kylie suddenly exclaimed, clapping her hands together excitedly. "You bought the _good_ orange juice!"

Now that made Kim look up, and she couldn't help the groan she let out when she saw the carton of juice Jared had just pulled out of the bag. For some reason that was not immediately discernible to Kim, his face fell at this reaction.

"What's wrong?" He demanded. "Have I screwed up already?"

"Already?" Kim questioned in confusion, but continued on without waiting for a reply, "No, it'll be fine, I suppose," She sighed, "That's more sugar than I'd normally be willing to give her, but I guess she has to get her energy back somehow…"

"I can return it!" Jared insisted instantly, moving to replace the carton in the bag. "And I'll get the right kind. I'll go right now!"

"It's fine," Kim reassured him, taking a step closer to him—attempting to suppress the sudden feeling of giddiness rising in her—and resting a hand gently on his arm to prevent him from making another unnecessary trip to the store. It would, after all, be a pretty lame hallucination if the secret love of her life kept leaving her to run errands.

Jared seemed to freeze as soon as Kim's hand made contact with his arm, and his gaze lowered to look where she was touching him. Embarrassed yet again, and internally chastising herself, Kim snatched her hand back quickly.

"Sorry," She murmured, hastily looking away from him and back to the pot of soup which, she suddenly realized, was in danger of boiling over at any moment. Forgetting all about Jared's indecipherable reaction, Kim quickly turned the stove off and switched the pot to a cooler burner. "Crackers?" She asked without turning around, her hand reaching up to open the cabinet above the stove so that she could pull out a soup bowl.

"Not today," came Kylie's reply. "I think that would be too much food."

"And we wouldn't want a repeat of last night, now, would we?" Kim asked in a teasing tone as she ladled some of the hot soup into the bowl.

"What happened last night?"

Kim jumped at the sound of Jared's voice—how she could have completely forgotten in such a short span of time that he was standing right there, she had no idea.

"I threw up!" Kylie said cheerfully before Kim could respond. "A lot. Me and Kimmie stayed up almost all night because of it."

"Oh," Jared said shortly, and Kim couldn't help but look back at him when she heard his tone. The squeamish expression on his face caused her to let out an unexpected laugh.

"What?" Jared demanded immediately, his expression lightening. "What's so funny?"

Kim shook her head, her face reddening slightly as she turned back to the food she was getting ready for her sister.

"C'mon," Jared wheedled, stepping closer to Kim, "What is it?"

Was it just Kim or had the temperature in the kitchen just risen about ten degrees?

"Would you like something to eat?" Kim blurted out, awkwardly attempting to change the subject so as to avoid having to awkwardly explain to him that she was so amused by the face he had been making.

"Normally I wouldn't turn down food…but I've always thought soup was kind of nasty, to tell you the truth."

Kim paused and turned to look at him, the incredulous look on her face quickly morphing into a grin. "I couldn't agree more." She could feel her face reddening even more as Jared returned her grin and so turned to Kylie, who was still sitting at the table. "You can go sit on the couch and watch T.V. if you want; I'll bring your food to you."

"Okay," Kylie agreed happily, standing up and scurrying out of the room. Well, she was definitely feeling better then.

Kim turned back to the cabinets in order to get a cup for Kylie's juice but instead came face-to-face with Jared who was holding Kylie's soup bowl in one hand and a cup of orange juice in the other.

"I'll bring this to her," Jared informed her cheerfully, following Kylie's path out of the kitchen.

Kim could only stare after him as he left. Honestly, she knew she wasn't hallucinating. Well, probably not, anyway. But for real though, why was Jared being so…nice? It wasn't that he'd ever been actively mean to her before, but she couldn't think of a single reason why he was being so helpful right now. Surely it couldn't be just because she'd lent him a few notes for class…

The indecipherable sound of Jared's voice followed by Kylie's giggles broke Kim from her thoughts. What did it really matter what Jared's reason was for acting the way he was right now? All that mattered was that he was here, and Kim was newly determined to make the best of it. Who knew how long it would last, after all? With that thought in mind, Kim crossed the kitchen to the refrigerator; if Jared wasn't too picky about food, they were bound to have something in there that he'd like.

Kim had just finished digging through the freezer when Jared finally returned to the kitchen.

"Your sister is cute," He commented, leaning casually against the doorframe.

"You bought her something she wanted," Kim replied, turning to face him, "Good luck ever getting rid of her now. So, I was going to make myself some lunch…do you want to…er…stay?"

"Sure," Jared replied immediately. "What are you making?"

"I was thinking hamburgers," Kim said, indicating the frozen patties she'd found in the back of the freezer. "So, on a scale of one to three, how many should I make you?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Jared was of the firm belief that Kim was the most beautiful person in the entire world and that was never going to change. But after spending the past hour with her, he had quickly realized that that was the least of the things that made Kim so delightfully…well, _Kim_.

She was quiet in school, yes, if his and Paul's ashamedly little recollections of her were anything to go by, but he could see that she was completely comfortable here in her own home as she warmed up to him. They talked about a wide variety of things, although it was mostly superficial stuff as neither really knew the other very well yet. But what he did know now was that she was beyond funny and so slyly sarcastic. And she cared so much about her little sister. And good grief could that girl make a mean burger.

Basically, Kim was perfect and Jared was going to do whatever it took to never let her go. And that was going to have to mean taking things slow. Kim's adorable blush had never really gone away while they were talking, and Jared didn't want to scare her away by moving too quickly. He was going to have to work hard to have a relationship with her, but it was pretty safe to say that he was going to enjoy every moment of it, no matter how long it took.

"I was thinking…" Jared began slowly during a pause in their conversation, more than two hours after he had first shown up at her house. They were sitting at the kitchen table, the remains of their meal in front of them. "So I brought you that homework and I have your notes to return, too, but I really missed a lot all those days I was absent."

Jared hesitated slightly and Kim merely sat there looking at him patiently. He really couldn't read her expression, so he just decided to plow on in the hope that she wasn't going to completely shoot down what he was about to suggest.

"I was thinking maybe you could help me catch up," He continued swiftly. "I mean, it's only if you want to. It's just that you took really good notes and I can use all the help I can get at this point."

"Are you suggesting we become…study buddies?" Kim asked, and Jared could see her lips threatening to curl up into a smile. God, he wanted to kiss those lips so badly.

"Is that a bad suggestion?" Jared questioned nervously. "I mean, there's only like less than a month left of school before summer, but it's better late than never…right?"

"That's actually a pretty good idea," Kim told him.

Relaxing slightly now that she had essentially—hopefully—just agreed to study with him, Jared couldn't help teasing her, "No need to sound so surprised; I've been known to have a good idea every so often, you know."

Kim's cheeks darkened adorably as she responded, "I was actually referring to the fact that we have finals coming up soon, so it will help me study as well."

"Ah," Jared intoned with a brief nod, "I see how it is. You're not helping me out of the goodness of your heart; you're just out to help yourself."

Kim's face remained a deep red as she shook her head, looking away from him. "You're impossible," She informed him.

"But you'll do it?" Jared pressed, just to make sure. "You'll help me catch up—or at least pretend to, while you study for yourself?"

Kim rolled her eyes, but there was a small smile on her face as she looked back to Jared. "Yes, I'll study with you. Did you want to get started right now?"

Jared desperately hoped that he wasn't imaging things and that Kim actually looked rather hopeful as she asked him that. Unfortunately, though, he had just caught sight of the time and realized that he was supposed to be meeting Sam and Paul for patrol approximately ten minutes ago.

"I do, but I can't right now," Jared said with a sigh. And now he knew that he wasn't imagining Kim deflating slightly as he spoke. Even though it was upsetting for him that he had clearly just upset her, he still took it as a good sign that apparently his imprint was actually enjoying his company. Now that he was actually experiencing the phenomena firsthand, he could empathize better with Sam over the fact that Emily currently wanted absolutely nothing to do with him; after just spending this little amount of time with Kim, he didn't know how he'd cope if she changed her mind about them spending time together. "I haven't been paying attention to the time and I should really be heading to work now."

Kim nodded in understanding, "Tomorrow, then?"

Jared nodded eagerly as he stood up—hopefully Sam wouldn't be too angry with him for being late. Less than two minutes later, after finally handing over all of Kim's homework and promising that he'd see her the next day in school and barely restraining himself from kissing her goodbye, Jared was out the door and making his way into the woods.

No sooner had he phased than both Sam and Paul's voices were running through his head.

_You're late_, was all Sam said, but Jared could feel his irritation.

_How was Mission: Stalk the Imprint, Jared and Kim Edition?_ Paul demanded before Jared could apologize to Sam for losing track of the time. Immediately, Jared's thoughts turned to everything that had happened since he had left Paul in the school parking lot.

_And to think, just a few days ago you were complaining about having to go back to school and now you have your very own study buddy,_ Sam thought in a teasing tone after the onslaught of Jared's thoughts and memories had died down.

_Shut up,_ Jared responded immediately.

Sam just mentally rolled his eyes in response. _It's been pretty quiet out here. As long as nothing comes up, you two can both head home at eleven._

_Okay. Now get lost,_ Paul told him, _I don't think I can handle the combination of you mooning over Emily and Jared thinking about all of the 'studying' he and Kim are going to do tomorrow._

Sam didn't deign Paul with a response, merely phasing at once he reached his backyard, but Jared was pretty sure that, if it hadn't been for his distinct lack of fingers while in wolf form, Paul would have been on the receiving end of a rather rude hand gesture, mostly because Jared himself would have done the same. There was nothing at all wrong about thinking about spending time with Kim, his beyond amazing imprint, thank you very much.

_Gag, _Paul mentally coughed._ As if the past three hours in Sam's head weren't enough, don't make me suffer through _your_ fascination with your imprint, too._

Had he really just spent three whole hours with Kim? Huh, time had really seemed to fly. _Is Emily still refusing to talk to him, then?_

Jared felt rather than saw—mostly because they were currently running on opposite ends of the reservation—Paul nod in affirmation. _Since she's started ignoring his phone calls, he's thinking about running up to the Makah rez this weekend while we're both patrolling to see if he can get her to talk to him in person._

_You mean ignore him in person?_ Jared couldn't help but ask and Paul snorted in laughter.

_I _am_ glad that Kim doesn't seem to mind your stalker-ish-ness,_ Paul said slowly, after a brief moment of hesitation before ultimately deciding that he wasn't going to be able to hide the thought from Jared._ It sucks for Sam that he's got this uncontrollable bond with a chick who doesn't want anything to do with him because he dumped her best friend for her. Plus, Kim seems kind of nice, from what I saw before._

_She _is_ nice,_ Jared agreed, contemplating, not for the first time in the past two days but appreciating it more now that he'd actually gotten the chance to talk to her, how lucky he was that the spirits had determined that someone as perfect as Kim was his soul mate and deemed fit to enlighten him as to that fact.

_No need to get so sentimental, dude, _Paul said immediately, and Jared couldn't miss his internal grimace. _I was trying to avoid that, actually._

Now it was Jared's turn to roll his eyes. _Fine then, how do you think the Mariners are going to do tomorrow?_

* * *

><p>The next morning, Jared found himself at school earlier than he had been all year. Indeed, it was even earlier than the previous day, when he had been overly-anxious to catch another glimpse of Kim but had still managed to sleep through his alarm. Today, however, was a different story. Jared was determined to be on time for school—or early, as it was—because he had promised Kim that he would see her there and he wasn't about to let her down.<p>

"Have I mentioned lately that imprinting is going to be the death of me?" Paul moaned from where he was sprawled across the bed of Jared's truck, exhausted from a combination of his eight-hour patrol the day before and his dad's insistence that he pass high school the first time around, which had resulted in a few hours' worth of homework after patrol.

"Probably," Jared replied from his seat near Paul's feet, busily scanning the faces of students as they descended on the schools. He had strategically parked in the direct path Kim would have to take to get to the high school from the elementary school, knowing that she dropped her sister off there every morning. But so far she hadn't shown up.

"Seriously though, you do realize we could still be sleeping now, right?" Paul questioned.

"You could have walked, you know," Jared shot back.

"And missed my official introduction? I don't _think_ so."

Jared's response was cut off, however, by the sight of Kim rounding the corner of the Elementary School. A wide grin stretched across his face. This morning when he got in his truck to head to school he had kicked himself for not even bothering to think of offering to give Kim a ride to school, and had almost driven to her house anyway just to make up for the oversight. But he didn't want to seem too presumptuous, plus there was always the off-chance that Kylie wasn't quite well enough to come back to school and that Kim would have to stay home again to look after her. Those fears were immediately put to rest when he saw her, though.

"Is that her, then?" Jared glanced over at Paul to see that the other boy was now sitting up and also following Kim's progress across the parking lot between the elementary and middle schools.

"Yes," Jared sighed happily, turning back to look at her. Then he stiffened and rounded on Paul suddenly, "This is serious, Paul. I'm still not convinced I won't scare her away, so make sure you're nice to her and stuff…don't be rude or anything."

"Chill, man," Paul replied with a roll of his eyes, too tired from his lack of sleep to work up any energy to even think about being angry at Jared's words. "I might think the past forty-eight hours have turned you into the sappiest person ever, but I'm not stupid. I would never mess with Kim. She's not like everyone else. She's pack."

Jared couldn't help but smile at that. And his smile only widened when Kim happened to glance up and catch sight of him waiting in her path. He immediately waved and, after only the briefest moment of hesitation, she gave him a small wave in return and continued walking in his direction.

The imprint might still be new, and he and Kim were definitely still getting to know each other. But, if nothing else, Paul was definitely right: Kim was pack.

* * *

><p><strong>an-I originally wasn't going to include that last part, but then a review got me thinking that Paul really has seemed almost too chill in his brief appearances so far. My goal was to showcase why I've portrayed him the way I have so far, but I'm not quite sure how well I've pulled that off here. Basically, I think it's fair to say that Paul was never constantly angry 24/7, even when he first began phasing, plus we really haven't seen too much of him yet, so there's plenty of time for some Paul explosions still. And trust me, there will be explosions.**

**On a mostly unrelated note, I think from now on I'm going to stick to Friday updates because apparently people like to review more when it's the weekend. But really, also because I'm running out of pre-written chapters and I want to keep up a regular updating pace while I find time to write more and eventually finish this story. However, I like sharing this story with all of you so much who knows if I'll actually stick to just Fridays...**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

_This is weird_, Kim couldn't help but think.

She was currently seated in her kitchen, her homework spread across half of the table before her and the sound of the laugh track on Kylie's television show in the background. Spread out on the other half of the kitchen table was Jared's homework, with said boy seated in the chair directly across from her.

No, this was beyond weird. Jared Cameron was sitting in her kitchen and they were doing their homework together. _So_ beyond weird.

But the weirdest part of it all?

This was the seventh time this exact situation had occurred. The _seventh_ time. In a _row_.

Somehow Jared had actually been serious when he had asked if he could be her study partner; honestly, Kim hadn't really believed he'd stick to it. But here they were: Day Seven and still doing their homework together after school. Kim would call it one of those things you had to see to believe, but here she was seeing it and she still wasn't entirely sure she believed it was real life.

Seeing Jared pause in whatever he was writing, Kim shook her head slightly and forced herself to look away from him and down at her own work before he could catch her staring.

And as she began working on the review problems she had been set in Chemistry that morning, Kim couldn't help but smile to herself. It might still be sinking in, but this was definitely real life. Jared was really here and they were really sitting in her kitchen working on their homework.

Schoolwork was a wonderful thing.

It wasn't just schoolwork that was wonderful, though. Because for the past seven days, not only had Jared been coming over to Kim's house every day after school so that they could do their homework together, but what had started as him popping up unexpectedly throughout the school day had progressed to Jared walking Kim to each of her classes every day. They even ate lunch together, usually with Paul Lahote as well (And, for the record, this made Kim seriously doubt her stalking abilities because she never thought Jared and Paul had interacted with each other before, let alone been friendly enough that they drove to school and ate lunch with each other every day, but apparently they were). Jared had even offered to drive both her and Kylie to _and_ from school every day, which had probably shocked her the most even if he hadn't asked in between apologizing for not asking sooner. That offer to spend time in Jared's company she had turned down, though; she quite liked her walks, and she wasn't about to let Kylie get used to driving when Kim knew it probably wouldn't last.

The next two weeks passed in much the same manner. Indeed, it progressed to the point that Kim (and, by extension, Kylie, when they weren't in school) was spending most of her time with Jared. It was all very surreal for Kim. Of course, there were still the classes they were separated during and he did leave every night (albeit rather reluctantly, if Kim was interpreting his behavior correctly) after studying and usually dinner. But still, that was a lot of time spent in Jared's company considering Kim was pretty certain he hadn't actually known she existed until he borrowed her history notes.

Not that she was complaining. No, definitely not. Rather, she was quite certain these had been the best three weeks of her life.

And yes, she was quite aware how pathetic that made her seem, thank you very much. But she was a teenage girl who basically spent most of her time raising her little sister. Was it really such a crime to enjoy the attention of a cute guy she'd always had a crush on? Not in Kim's book.

It wasn't as if it was going to last much longer, anyway. Today was the last day of school, after all, and Jared would no longer need her as a study partner. For the most part though, Kim was okay with that, because she had enjoyed Jared's company while it lasted. And there was always the hope that maybe they could pick their study sessions back up at the beginning of next year…

"Hey, Kim!"

Kim was interrupted from her musings by the sudden appearance of Jared at her locker. Even though this little routine had been happening for weeks by this point, the cheerful grin he focused completely on her still brought a blush to Kim's cheeks. Jared really was too gorgeous for his own good.

"Hey, Jared," Kim replied, giving him a small smile of her own before turning back to retrieve the lone textbook remaining in her locker.

"I don't know about you," Jared began, "But I feel more ready for this History final than I've felt for any test before in my entire life. 'Course, that's probably because I had the world's best tutor helping me study for it." And here he flashed her another blush-inducing grin. Why, oh why, did she have to be _so_ blush prone?

"It'll be nice not to have to study anymore," Kim agreed. And no sooner had she spoken than Jared's grin disappeared and his whole face fell. Her eyes widened immediately in alarm while her cursed cheeks turned an even darker shade of red. "No! I didn't mean it like that! I mean, studying with you was great. It was the actual studying part I'm ready to be done with. Of course I loved hanging out with you—I mean, I liked it…it was great…a fun time. The actual studying was the part that sucked."

Kim forced herself to shut her mouth before she continued tripping over her words—any longer and she probably would have accidentally blurted out just how very much she enjoyed spending time with Jared. There was no possible way anyone's life could be more mortifying than hers at the present moment. And meanwhile Jared was just standing there with a stupid smirk on his face. Forget studying, _boys_ sucked. Jared sucked.

Except…Kim was a glutton for punishment. Jared didn't actually suck. He was all sorts of amazing. And he was still standing there even after her utter ridiculousness. Jared really was amazing.

"C'mon," Jared jerked his head vaguely in the direction of their classroom and snatched Kim's textbook out of her hands before she could protest, as was the norm. "Let's put all that studying to good use and get this final over with."

Just over an hour later, Kim could easily admit to herself that Jared's idea to be study partners really had worked well…better than she thought it would, originally, if she was being completely honest with herself. Not that she was ever going to feed his ego and admit it to his face, that is. Of course, it wasn't as if she expected to ever have the opportunity to admit anything to his face again. With finals officially completely over, Kim honestly couldn't see a reason for Jared to continue socializing with her. Which would explain why she was so surprised when, after the bell rang, Jared simply stood and waited for Kim to finish gathering her things.

"What are you doing?" Kim questioned upon looking up to see him standing there, the same as every other day after class ended the past couple of weeks.

"Er…waiting for you?" Jared offered, apparently genuinely confused, Kim couldn't help but note.

"But…why?"

"Because I am," Jared replied, even more confused now. "Just like I've _been_ doing…why? D'you…I mean, I know we don't have any homework anymore, did you not want to hang out with me anymore?"

"No!" Kim declared immediately, followed of course by the reddening of her cheeks at her outburst. "I mean, no, of course not," She said in a calmer tone. "I just…well, I just thought…now that finals are over and we don't have to study anymore…well, that you might not want…"

She trailed off, equal parts unsure and embarrassed. She couldn't even read Jared's expression.

"Kim, Jared, don't you have somewhere else to be?" Mrs. Reynolds' voice tore Kim away from avoiding looking at Jared. "I know _I_ have one last class coming in for their final."

"Oh, sorry, yes, we were just leaving," Kim said swiftly, slinging her bag over her shoulder and quickly exiting the classroom.

No sooner was she out in the hallway, however, than a warm hand locked around her right wrist, stopping her in her tracks.

This was not the first time Kim had come into skin-to-skin contact with Jared in the past few weeks. There had been plenty of times when hands, arms, and even legs had brushed against each other while sitting side-by-side studying or eating, or when they were walking through the halls together. And just like every other time, Kim's entire body tingled at the contact. It was an altogether rather pleasant feeling.

Kim looked down at the hand wrapped around her wrist and then up into Jared's frowning face. Well there went her pleasant feeling…

"Why wouldn't I want to spend time with you anymore?" Jared demanded.

Kim shrugged, embarrassed yet again, and thoroughly uncomfortable with the route this conversation was taking.

"Did you…" Jared suddenly looked stricken. "Did you think I was using you to get a better grade or something?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Jared," Kim finally said. "I mean, I didn't think you were _using_ me. But now that you don't need me anymore, I know there are a lot of other, more interesting ways you could be spending your time."

"I'm pretty sure you're the one who's being ridiculous here, Kim," Jared replied, his grip on her wrist tightening almost imperceptibly. "Of course I _need_ you. We're f-friends now. There is honestly nothing I'd rather do than spend time with you."

Kim merely studied him for a moment. He certainly seemed sincere. She hadn't missed how he'd stuttered over calling her a friend, but she couldn't imagine why that was. Oh well, it really couldn't hurt…honestly, she'd died a bit more on the inside at the end of every study session that brought them closer to the end of the year. If Jared Cameron really wanted to be her friend, then who was she to argue?

Kim smiled. "Well, okay, then."

Jared smiled back and finally seemed to realize that he was still clutching at her wrist, releasing it immediately—she instantly missed the warmth of his hand.

"Well," Jared began, "I don't know about you, but I actually _don't_ have anywhere else to be. My final right now is study hall."

"P.E.," Kim replied. "So I'm done, but Kylie doesn't get out for another hour, so I have to stick around to pick her up."

"What about after that?" Jared asked. And was Kim imagining things or did he suddenly look nervous?

"Just summer vacation," Kim said with a shrug.

"Well then," Jared began slowly, "Maybe you and Kylie could come out to lunch with me? My treat. We can go to the diner and celebrate the end of studying and the beginning of summer. Friends do that kind of thing, right?"

"Yeah, sounds fun," Kim agreed with a smile.

But she wasn't smiling on the inside. What she would give to be going out with Jared as more than just friends…


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

He was an _idiot_. The worst kind of idiot.

That wasn't at all what he'd wanted to ask Kim. Well, it _was_ because he had been planning on seeing if she and Kylie wanted to get lunch to celebrate the last day of school. But he _definitely_ hadn't meant to say all of that nonsense about being friends.

Because if there was one thing Jared wanted, it definitely _wasn't_ just friendship with Kim.

But he chickened out at the last second and went back to the standard argument that it was still too soon for anything more. Kim was special, even if she didn't quite see it yet. She _deserved_ for Jared to take things slowly. Well, that and he didn't want to scare her off with the soul mate talk just yet. _That_ wouldn't come until _much_ later.

And clearly he knew what he was talking about because for whatever reason she seemed to be under the impression he didn't even want to be friends with her. So yeah, that soul mate talk was definitely not happening anytime soon.

But Jared was okay with that, because he still got to spend time with Kim. And any time spent with Kim was definitely his favorite part of the day. Take right now, for example. All they were doing was sitting on a bench outside of the elementary school, but Jared was loving every minute of it.

Paul was definitely going to make fun of him for this later.

But it was so worth it.

"So…" Kim began slowly, breaking the comfortable silence they had fallen into after discussing how they thought they did on their finals—naturally, Jared had no one but Kim to thank for how well he thought he did on his, despite her embarrassed protests to the contrary. "What are your plans for the summer?"

_Spending every possible moment with you._

"Working," Jared replied after a beat. "Mostly. But not always. Begging you to spend time with me, probably."

After spending as much time as possible with Kim over the past three weeks, if Jared had one guilty pleasure it was how easily he could make that blush spread across her cheeks. And, sure enough, that one sentence was enough to do it.

"Well I am very picky about who I spend my time with," Kim replied, "Especially during the summer."

"Oh, yeah?" Jared challenged her. "And what sort of plans do you have for the summer if your time is so precious?"

Kim gave him a sly grin, and Jared swore his heart skipped a beat.

"Nothing yet," She replied shortly.

"You mean Kylie hasn't already filled the daily itinerary with trips to the beach?" Jared questioned disbelievingly. If there was one thing he'd learned about the little girl over the past three weeks as he and Kim stayed inside studying their brains out, it was that her favorite place to spend her time was at the beach, rain or shine, and definitely not inside.

Kim merely shrugged. "I wouldn't know. Mom is sending Kylie to Grandma's for the summer."

"The whole summer?"

Kim nodded.

"At your grandma's?"

Another nod.

"By herself?"

Kim shrugged again. "Usually she'll send us both, but Mom said I deserve a break and the chance to do normal teenager things for a change."

Normal teenager things._ Dating was a thing teenagers did._

If Jared could have slapped himself at that thought without looking completely ridiculous he would have. There was a time and a place for thoughts like that, and it was not the here and now. Hadn't he established that just moments earlier?

Except…

He _really_ liked Kim. Spending time with Kim and her sister was great, but if there was the promise of uninterrupted time with just Kim for a whole summer, Jared would be an idiot not to take this opportunity. He wanted to take things slow, yes, but why waste time when they could potentially be in a relationship sooner rather than later. If she said yes, that was.

But it wouldn't be too difficult to find out. He just needed to ask her…just six little words. Jared could do this. He'd done it before, after all. Of course, it had never meant as much to him before as it did now. No one else mattered to him now except for Kim.

He could do this.

Jared took a deep breath.

"Hey Kim?" Jared asked hesitantly. He had never been this nervous before in his life. Until this moment, he hadn't even known it was _possible_ to be this nervous.

"Yeah?" Kim replied, looking to him with a small smile.

"Um…well…I was thinking…" Breathe. Just breathe. In and out. "Do you think…maybe…will you go out with me?"

Kim simply stared at him, her expression frozen.

She wasn't answering. He had finally worked up the courage after all of these weeks to ask her out and she wasn't answering. _Why_ wasn't she answering?

"I-you-_what_?" Kim stammered as her face turned red, and Jared's heart sank.

"Will you go out with me?" Jared repeated, trying not to let his dejection at her initial reaction show.

"On a date?" Kim questioned. And though she was still adorably bright red, Jared would have been pleased to note that she'd been able to get out something that actually sounded like a complete sentence that time if it wasn't for the fact it wasn't the sentence he was hoping to hear. Well, at least she hadn't outright turned him down…yet.

Jared nodded in response.

"With you?"

Jared could only nod again. This was so not going anything liked he'd hoped it would…

"So, as in, you and me, together, on a date, just the two of us?"

Jared nodded yet again.

"Why?"

Jared gave a little start at that. What did she mean 'why?' Why _wouldn't_ he want to go on a date with her? She was amazing. And beyond the subtle tug of the imprint that never went away no matter how much time they spent in each others' presence, Jared had thought they had really connected with each other over the last few weeks as they got to know each other. She had to have felt it; she'd wanted to be his friend earlier, hadn't she? But maybe that feeling had just been him?

"Why _wouldn't_ I want to go out with you?" Jared asked, genuinely confused and in desperate need of an answer. Dear god he hoped she didn't think he wasn't good enough for her…even though it was the truth, he was selfish enough to hope that she hadn't realized that yet.

But as soon as he spoke, Jared noted that Kim appeared to be just as confused as he felt.

"Well…" Kim trailed off, and Jared couldn't help but note in the small part of his mind that was desperately trying not to freak out that her deep blush was still going strong. Seriously, how adorable could she be? And when did he become the type of guy that called girls adorable? Well, when he finally noticed Kim, apparently, because he'd been doing that a lot lately. And speaking of Kim…

"I'm me and you're…you," She gestured vaguely first at herself and then at him. Jared was seriously at a loss; what on Earth was she going on about?

"I really don't know where you're going with this," Jared finally settled on admitting, at a loss for how else to respond.

"Jared," Kim said, and the slight uncharacteristic sharpness of her tone distracted him from thoughts of how nice his name sounded when she said it, though he definitely wasn't distracted from the look of embarrassment that had appeared on her face. "I know we're friends now, but this is different. People like you do not ask out people like me."

And suddenly everything made sense. Jared's initial reaction was to be angry, because how dare anyone—purposefully or otherwise—lead Kim to think that she wasn't good enough for someone, especially someone like him who definitely wasn't good enough for _her_. But he knew getting angry would only scare Kim, who was now steadfastly refusing to look at him and was instead focusing all of her attention on the fraying strap of her bag, and scaring Kim was the last thing he ever wanted to do. And so he settled on attempting to put to words how very wrong she was.

"Kim," Jared said softly, and he noted that she did jump in surprise, though that might have had more to do with the fact that he'd covered the hand fidgeting with her strap with one of his rather than the fact that he'd spoken. "I really don't know what 'people' you're talking about, but clearly it's not true because I _did_ ask you out, and I really want you to say yes."

Kim seemed to hesitate before finally meeting Jared's eyes again. "Really?"

"Really," Jared affirmed. "I guess it probably would have helped if I had prefaced my questioned with a bit of an explanation, huh? I've really liked getting to know you the past few weeks, Kim, and I'm glad you agreed to be my study partner, even though I probably got a lot more out of it than you did." That got a smile out of Kim, albeit a small one. "And even though it's great that we've managed to become friendly, I really think we could have more than that and I don't want to scare you away before we can get the chance to at least try." Her smile got wider at that, and he could tell that she was holding back a giggle. "So, what do you say?"

Kim merely studied him for a moment before speaking.

"I've really liked spending time with you, too, Jared," Kim began, and Jared now allowed himself to inwardly swoon at the sound of his name on her lips while also inwardly cheering at her admission, and if those two thoughts alone didn't prove that he was completely whipped already, then he didn't know what would. "And…well, I guess I will go out with you."

"There's no need to sound so excited about it," Jared informed her and Kim really did giggle this time.

"I would love to go out with you, Jared," Kim said with a grin while the familiar blush quickly darkened her features.

Best. Day. Ever.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

_Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god._

There were only three words running on a continuous loop through Kim's head.

_Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god._

Jared Cameron had asked her out. On a date. With him. And she said yes.

Kim was positive that she was dreaming.

Except…hadn't she tried to talk him out of it? Hadn't his reason for wanting to ask her out been perfectly sensible—and swoon worthy? That was Jared Cameron in a nutshell: sensible and swoon-worthy.

There really was no other explanation for it: This was real life.

_Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!_

"Kimmie!" The excited shout brought Kim out of her daze to see Kylie running towards her, a wide grin on her face. Quickly, Kim stood up and opened her arms just in time to catch Kylie as the younger girl threw herself at her older sister.

"How was school?" Kim asked, amused, as she released her sister.

"It was the best ever!" Kylie said enthusiastically, surprising both Kim and Jared when she immediately threw herself at Jared and gave him a hug to rival the one she'd just given Kim.

"Oh, er, why?" Kim stumbled slightly as she watched Kylie hug Jared, but quickly decided to shrug off Kylie's behavior. She always had been an overly friendly little girl…and Jared's expression of pure confusion was _hilarious_.

"Because it's the last day. _Duh_," Kylie replied, turning back to Kim. "School is over forever!"

Kim laughed lightly. "Not quite, kid. You've got a few more years before you can really say school is done _forever_. You're just going to have to put up with only get a break for the summer for a while longer. But," She continued quickly when Kylie opened her mouth as if to protest, "Speaking of summer, Jared had a fun idea. How would you like to go to the diner to celebrate the end of school?"

"Yes!" Kylie immediately shouted. "Is Mommy working there today? Can we see her?"

"Sure," Kim replied with a shrug, holding a hand out for Kylie to take.

"I'll drive," Jared said swiftly as he finally stood up. Kim couldn't help the giggle that slipped out when she caught sight of his determined expression. Clearly he expected her to protest him driving her and Kylie just like she had when he'd offered to drive them to and from school. This was different, though. Not only was this (kind of) a special occasion, but it was _far_ to walk from the school to the diner. Kim had absolutely no complaints about Jared driving today.

"Sounds good to me," Kim replied with a shrug, merely smiling as he narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her.

Both were distracted once again, however, by Kylie who chose that moment to slip her free hand into one of Jared's much larger hands and begin pulling the two of them towards the parking lot.

"C'mon! What are we waiting for?" She said impatiently. "There's a chocolate milkshake with my name on it calling for me!"

When they reached Jared's truck, however, it was to find Paul lounging in the front seat.

"_Dude_," Paul demanded as Jared opened the driver-side door, "Where have you _been_? I think I'm _dying_ of hunger."

Well, from the way she'd seen him inhale food every lunch period for the past few weeks, Kim wasn't surprised by that statement from Paul at all.

"We're going to the diner to celebrate summer!" Kylie told Paul excitedly before Jared could reply. "They have lots of yummy food there; you should come with us."

Kim merely rolled her eyes at her sister's matter-of-fact tone. Kylie really was too friendly for her own good.

She couldn't help but notice, though, that Paul hesitated before responding, his gaze going from Kylie to the grip she had on both Kim and Jared's hands and then to Jared himself, upon which Paul and Jared seemed to have a silent conversation with just their eyes. Kim sighed mentally. Boys could be so awkward sometimes. Though she really wasn't one to judge…

"You should come with us, Paul," Kim said softly, because honestly maybe he had something better to do with his time. "It'll be fun."

Paul was still looking at Jared, though. But whatever he saw there seemed to make up his mind, because he turned to Kim and shrugged.

"I'm always down for any food," He said. "I'll just get in the back so there's room for you guys in here."

But before he could make a move to open the passenger door, Kylie had released the hands she was holding, climbed into the cab of the truck, and settled herself into Paul's lap.

"It's okay, I'll just sit here," Kylie told him with a wide smile. "That way we can share a seat belt because Mommy always says everyone needs to wear a seat belt when they're riding in the car. And if you ride in the back, then you won't have a seat belt and then your mommy might get angry with you."

At Paul's overwhelmed expression, Kim bit back a smile and climbed in after her sister. Ten minutes later found the four of them seated in a booth at the small La Push diner. Kylie had claimed the seat next to Paul, having already declared him her new best friend after the car ride—not that Kim minded since it meant she got to sit next to Jared.

"Mommy!" Kylie cried, causing Kim to look up from her menu to see that her mom was indeed approaching their booth.

"Hello, Kylie," Her mom's overly calm voice immediately made Kim stiffen. Well shit. There was only one reason her mom used _that_ voice. She wasn't angry with Kim for taking Kylie out, was she? Maybe she was just having a bad day at work…either way, her tone did not bode good things to come that night at home. "And Kim, Jared, and…Paul."

"Hello, Ms. Conweller," Jared replied happily and Kim was grateful that he'd only briefly met her mother so far and thus couldn't tell that the woman was actually quite upset right now. Or, at least, she didn't think he could tell until his warm hand closed over hers on the seat in between them and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "It's good to see you again."

"It's good to see you again, too, Jared," She replied, "But I do believe I told you to call me Katie."

"You did," Jared replied cheerfully. "It's just, sometimes I actually remember to use the manners my mom beat into—er, _taught_ me."

Katie rolled her eyes at this, but Kim could easily tell that she was actually fighting back a smile. Clearly Kim wasn't the only person affected by Jared's charm.

"What can I do for you kids today?" Katie asked then.

"Well," Jared began swiftly, "Paul can fend for himself because he's a big boy, but make sure that whatever Kim and Kylie order ends up on my check—it's my treat to thank them for Kim basically tutoring me the past few weeks, and of course to apologize for depriving Kylie of her much-needed beach time."

"I'm getting a chocolate milkshake!" Kylie chimed in at this point.

"And will you be having food with your sugar?" Katie asked her daughter pointedly.

As Katie took down the rest of their orders, Kim only half-paid attention to her mom's still-slightly-odd behavior—but really, though, what did her mom have against Paul? The warm manner she'd adopted when speaking to Jared had shifted to stiffly polite when she turned to take Paul's order. To the best of Kim's knowledge, this was the first time her mom was even meeting the boy, even though they'd gone to school together since second grade. Of course, now that Kim thought about it, how had her mom even known Paul's name? Kim was ninety-nine point eight percent certain she had never mentioned anything at all to her mom about Paul Lahote in the past eight years. This was just bizarre.

But all of that was hardly important right now. Kim had bigger things to focus on for the time being. For example: Jared was still holding her hand (!).

Best. Day. Ever.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Ever since becoming a wolf, Jared's appetite had increased exponentially, there was no denying it. It was perfectly reasonable why, though.

Before becoming a wolf he had been a (rapidly) growing teenage boy with an appetite to match. But now he actually required more food because of how much he burned off by phasing and through all of the running he did as a wolf. Sam and Paul had appetites just as big as his.

But after the third time he sent Kim's mom back to the kitchen with a new order of food in the span of a little over an hour, even Paul was giving him funny looks. And it was never a good sign when _Paul_ was the one to question a person's actions.

Okay, so admittedly maybe he _had_ achieved what he'd previously thought was impossible and was actually currently full. But couldn't Paul see the big picture here? Jared had also achieved what he'd thought was more impossible and was currently hanging out with Kim doing something completely non-school-related (well, kind of, anyway). He couldn't just stop eating now! Then they would have to do the socially-acceptable thing and leave the diner and then he'd have to bring Kim home. No, it was for the best that Jared just kept ordering more food. Really, it was.

But on the other hand…if they stayed too long, then Kim's mom might be finished with work and then she'd do something crazy like insist on driving her daughters home herself since they were all going to the same place, and then Jared would have _less_ time with Kim.

Clearly this was just a no-win situation.

"Can we go to the beach after this?" Kylie asked, looking pleadingly at Kim.

Hmm…or maybe not _quite_ no-win.

"We could do that," Kim replied, glancing down at her watch. "It's not even two yet, and mom won't be home until really late tonight anyway."

Well that was good to know too…

"And Paul and Jared can come, too!" Kylie continued cheerfully.

Jared smirked at Paul's deer-in-the-headlights expression as the other boy looked up from the remnants of his massive order of fries at the sound of his name.

"Yeah, Paul," Jared agreed, smirking widening as Paul glared at him. Kylie's attachment to Paul was by far the most entertaining thing Jared had ever witnessed. "You should come to the beach with us."

"I have to head to work soon," Paul stated, but as Kylie lamented the fact her new best friend would soon be abandoning her, Jared was more focused on the fact Kim's cheeks had reddened again slightly.

For as adorable as Jared really did think her blushing was, by this point he knew that it really only happened when she was embarrassed about something. So now the question was: what did Kim have to be embarrassed about right now? Surely it couldn't be Kylie's obsession with Paul; she'd seemed just as amused by that as Jared was. So then…was it something _Jared_ had done? Oh no! That must be it! Jared had done something and now Kim was embarrassed by it and she was never going to want to associate with him ever again! His life was over.

Suddenly, a cool hand was lightly touching his arm that rested on the table.

"Are you alright, Jared?" Kim's voice spoke softly from his left.

Jared barely registered Kylie, on the other side of the table, conning Paul into promising her he would go to the beach with her another time. No, his attention was focused on the fact that Kim was actually touching his arm and the rest of her was just an inch shy of being pressed against his side, as she had leaned closer to talk to him quietly.

"Jared?" Kim questioned again. "Are you okay? You looked like you were going to start hyperventilating or something."

Well, that was probably a reasonable observation, Jared could not help but concede to himself. And if she leaned any closer to him, he couldn't promise that it _wouldn't_ happen.

Jared turned to Kim with a smile, "I'm great."

And she must have believed him, because her concerned expression easily morphed into a matching smile. She was beautiful.

Also, clearly imprinting could be responsible for causing some pretty rapid mood swings. But Jared wasn't about to complain about it a single bit.

* * *

><p>After asking for a to-go box for his latest meal, true to his word Jared paid for Kim and Kylie's food, easily shooting down Kim's protests that it was too much. Nothing was too much for Jared to do for Kim; she would learn that soon enough.<p>

Following that, they all piled back into the truck—Jared glancing nervously back at the diner in case Kim's mom happened to be witnessing him driving around her daughters semi-illegally—and Jared dropped Paul off at Sam's house, before heading towards First Beach. Throughout the whole ride, Kylie kept up a constant stream of chatter about the sand castle she planned to build while Kim nodded or gave a monosyllabic reply every so often.

The pink tinge was back on her cheeks again.

Once Jared had parked and Kylie was running across the deserted sand—it was typically overcast and rather chilly outside for a day at the beach for most people after all—he turned to Kim and held a hand out to her. She didn't take it, though, and Jared's outstretched arm wavered when she made eye contact with him and bit her lip—a telltale sign of her nervousness.

"Kim?" Jared questioned.

"You don't have to stay with us!" Kim finally blurted out and her blush darkened. Was this really what she had been embarrassed about since the diner? "I mean, thank you for driving us here, but if you don't want to stay and build sand castles with us I'll totally understand. You really don't have to spend more time with us than you already have today if you don't want to."

A wolf was supposed to be whatever the imprint needed and wanted him to be. And Jared was really starting to get a clear picture of what Kim _needed_ from him.

There was no doubt about it that Kim was used to going it alone. To start off with, even though Kim hadn't said anything—and Jared knew it was too soon to ask about something so personal—he knew her dad wasn't in the picture at all. Her mom loved her, but she also needed to work two jobs in order to support her family and so depended on Kim to take care of Kylie most of the time. Jared could barely even fathom how much work it must be for Kim, as a teenager, to care for a seven-year-old all the time. What he did know, though, was that caring for Kylie was basically Kim's life. She had let slip on the first day Jared asked to eat lunch with her that she usually ate alone because she had no one to sit with. Because she didn't really have friends. Because she didn't have time for friends. She was fifteen years old and she didn't have time for friends.

What Kim needed was someone who could be in her life and wasn't going to leave her alone, who would support her and help her in any way possible.

Jared was more than up for the job.

"Don't be ridiculous," Jared told her easily. The key had to be being casual about the whole thing. "I love spending time with you, and I think Kylie is hilarious, so having her around is pretty fun, too."

"You're sure?" Kim clearly couldn't help but question. And, although her expression was just a bit dubious, her eyes had definitely lit up when he said he loved spending time with her. Well that was definitely a good sign.

"Positive," Jared replied, reaching his hand out for hers once more, and this time she took it. This was now the second time today that Jared was holding Kim's hand—for the record, it fit perfectly in his—and as they started walking across the beach to where Kylie had begun digging through the sand with her hands, he couldn't help but think that this day really couldn't get much better. Well…maybe there was just one more matter to settle first…

"So I was thinking," Jared began.

"Do you do that often?" Kim cut in slyly.

"Eh…when it suits me," Jared replied with a shrug, though he was grinning. Before he'd really gotten to know Kim, he'd had no idea how sassy she could be when she wanted to. He loved it. "But really though, I was thinking about something in the car."

He glanced over at Kim here and she merely raised her eyebrows at him expectantly.

"You know how I asked you out earlier?" He questioned. "And you agreed?"

"Yes, I believe I was there for that," Kim replied.

"Oh, good, so was I," Jared said. "But anyway, I only just realized that even though we agreed to go out together, we never actually discussed any specifics. Like when…or where."

"Hmm…you may have a point," Kim agreed thoughtfully. "I feel like figuring out those types of things might prove useful in the long run."

"See? That's exactly what I thought!" Jared exclaimed. "So, I guess the important thing to know first: when is Kylie leaving?"

Kim shook her head with a small laugh. "She is kind of a third wheel, isn't she?"

Well, Jared had attempted to word it in the least rude way possible, but if _Kim_ was going to word it like that, then he couldn't help but agree. Kylie was an entertaining third wheel, but a third wheel nonetheless when all he really wanted to do was spend time with Kim.

"Mom has the day off tomorrow," Kim continued, "So we're heading over to the Hoh reservation to spend the day with my grandma. We'll leave Kylie there with her."

"So, we can go out on Friday, then?" Jared asked hopefully; he was pretty sure he would die if she said she was busy then. And what if she had changed her mind about going out with him in the past two hours since he had originally asked her? Or, more realistically, in the past two minutes since he brought the topic up again? This was all way too stressful.

But then Kim smiled and Jared instantly felt himself relax. Ah…the imprint-induced mood swings strike again.

"Friday would be perfect."

**a/n—To be completely honest, I was not quite happy the past couple of chapters with making Kim constantly question Jared's desire to spend time with her; I felt like it made her into a weaker character. However, I hope to have rectified that in this chapter with Jared beginning to come to an understanding of her personality. Also, a big thank you to everyone who has left a review so far! I love seeing what people have to say about this story, especially some of those theories after last chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

Kim was nervous. Beyond nervous. On the verge of hyperventilating nervous.

Okay, so probably not that last one. At least not quite yet. It was only Thursday evening, after all. She still had roughly twenty-two hours before she was going out with Jared and therefore roughly twenty-_one_ hours before she began hyperventilating.

That's right. In less than twenty-four hours Kim would be going on a date with Jared Cameron, the boy of her dreams since at least seventh grade.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?" Kim was broken out of her daze by her mother's voice, only to see that they were currently parked in the driveway of their small house. Huh. When had that happened? Had she really been so consumed with thoughts of Jared that she had completely missed the hour-long car ride from her grandma's house?

"Kim?" Katie pressed. "You've been awfully quiet since we left grandma's. You haven't changed your mind about what you're doing this summer, have you?"

Kim shook her head immediately.

"I was just thinking about…things?" Kim finished lamely.

Kate rose a single questioning eyebrow. "Things?" She repeated. "Is that teenager code for something? Is there anything you wanted to talk about?"

Kim bit her lip nervously. It wasn't as if she had _never_ planned to tell her mom, because she _had_ been planning on it. It was just…Katie was also so busy and she never seemed to have time for Kim and Kylie, and maybe Kim's recently vindictive side had come out when she decided not to tell her mom anything about what was going on in her life in unless Katie brought it up first. Except…she _was_ asking now, wasn't she?

"I have a date tomorrow night!" Kim blurted out swiftly, before she could overthink things more than she'd already done. And although she could feel the blush rising on her cheeks, Kim refused to break eye contact with Katie. This was just her mom, she really had nothing to be embarrassed about.

An unreadable expression crossed over Katie's face. "It's not…who are you going out with, dear?"

"Jared," Kim replied, then frowned slightly at her mom's too-pleasant tone. What was up with her mom lately?

"Oh, _Jared_," Katie's expression immediately cleared. "I've been wondering what that boy was waiting for to ask you out; he looks at you like you're the sun."

But Kim's frown deepened. There was something going on with her mom, and she wanted to know what it was.

"Mom," Kim began slowly, "What were you going to say before?"

"It's nothing, Kim," Katie responded immediately, looking away from her daughter. "Don't worry about it."

Kim sighed. "Mom, you were worried I was going to say it was someone other than Jared—though I have no idea why, since it's not as if I really socialize with anyone, let alone numerous boys. Who did you think I was going to say?"

Now it was Katie's turn to sigh, and Kim could see her mom steeling her resolve ash she turned back to face Kim.

"Paul Lahote."

Kim would have laughed. She really wanted to laugh, in fact. Because just the _idea_ of Kim and Paul dating was laughable, and Kim was pretty sure Paul would agree. But she didn't laugh because the events of the previous day in the diner suddenly came rushing back to Kim. She had noticed her mom was uncomfortable—even bordering on hostile—with Paul at the time, but it had been completely driven from her mind after the afternoon spent with Jared that had followed.

"Mom, what is it that you've got against Paul?" Kim questioned.

Katie sighed again, more heavily now and, not for the first time in her life, Kim noted how weary her mother constantly seemed to look.

"Yesterday was the first time I ever met Paul," Katie began slowly. "I was surprised to see him with you and your sister; I didn't think the two of you had ever interacted. Of course, I know you've gone to school together for years, but you've never so much as mentioned him in passing to me. Not like…well, the point stands: you've never mentioned him before."

"Paul is a friend of Jared's," Kim felt the need to speak up here. "Honestly, I think it's kind of a recent thing because they work together."

Katie merely nodded, her gaze unfocused. "The thing is, I know who Paul is because I know his father."

Kim was confused. So what if her mom knew Paul's dad? She worked at the diner—she was bound to know just about everyone in La Push. What made Paul's dad so different? And what about him made her react that way around Paul?

"Gene Lahote and I used to date," Katie answered Kim's unspoken question.

Kim frowned slightly at this. Her mom had dated sporadically throughout her life and she rarely introduced the various men to either of her daughters because the relationships tended not to last very long. But Kim felt like it would have been worth mentioning that her mother was dating the father of one of her classmates.

"Well," Katie corrected herself with a small snort and a shake of her head, "I suppose I should use the term 'date' rather loosely in this case. It was just after he and Paul's mom were divorced when he and Paul moved to La Push; he wasn't looking for anything serious at the time."

Things were starting to make sense to Kim now. She knew where this was headed.

"You fell for him anyway, didn't you?" Kim questioned softly.

"I fell hard," Katie agreed with a wry grin. "And then he ended things after a few months and I was devastated. You probably don't remember just how upset I was back then; you were only seven and I tried to hide it from you because I knew you wouldn't understand. It wouldn't have been right to burden you with my problems then anyway, not that it's okay now…but I've held it in for so long, it's about time I told someone."

"I remember being seven…" Kim said slowly, her brow furrowing. There was definitely one major thing that stood out in Kim's life at that age... "That was when—"

"When I was pregnant with Kylie," Katie cut in. "Yes."

Kim's eyes widened suddenly and she looked at her mother in shock. No…it couldn't be. Katie merely gave her daughter a self-deprecating grimace.

"Mom," Kim said slowly. "Is Mr. Lahote Kylie's dad?"

There was a brief pause and then Katie nodded.

"Did he not want anything to do with her?" Kim asked hesitantly. _Like my dad wanted nothing to do with me?_ The unasked question.

Katie closed her eyes, refusing to meet Kim's as she spoke next, "I never told him."

There was silence in the car after that. Kim had no idea what to say. What _could_ she say to that? She had a feeling she knew exactly why her mom hadn't told Mr. Lahote anything.

"I was scared," Katie continued softly after more than a minute of silence. "I was afraid he would react exactly how your dad did and I couldn't go through that again. It was an accident that I even ended up pregnant; he always made it clear that we weren't in a serious relationship, after all. And beyond being scared, when I first found out I was pregnant he had already broken up with me and I was so angry I didn't want to tell him. And then by the time I realized keeping it from him was a mistake, Kylie was already born and he had a new girlfriend. It seemed too late and he had moved on and, as far as I could tell, he was happy; I didn't want to barge in an ruin everything. And Kylie has been just fine without him; we've all gotten by and I always had my mom to help out until she moved a few years ago. I know I've relied on you a lot since then, and I don't tell you enough how proud of you I am, Kim."

Katie stopped abruptly then and Kim knew there was nothing more her mom could say. And Kim understood. She might not necessarily _agree_ with her mom's decision, but she understood. Katie had always said that she had made a lot of mistakes in her life, but the only two she had never regretted were her two daughters. And Kim knew just how hard her mom had always worked to provide the best she could for Kim and her sister. This was all just very unexpected. Kylie and Paul were siblings.

Kylie. And _Paul_.

Which reminded Kim…

"Kylie was very attached to Paul yesterday," Kim said softly. "You know how friendly she can be. I guess it's only fitting that he's technically her brother."

Katie sighed again. "It's not fair of me—especially after burdening you with my secret—to ask you to stay away from him. And now that you're going to be dating his friend—"

"Mom!" Kim protested, her face darkening to a deep red immediately. Hadn't they just been talking about something _serious_? Now her mom was going around saying embarrassing stuff like that? "It's only one date!"

"Don't you make that face at me!" Katie shot right back, a smirk crossing her face now. "I may not be around that much, but I've seen the way that boy looks at you _and_ the way you look right back at him—it's not _just_ one date to either of you and you know it."

Kim bit her lip but did not otherwise reply. Of course she had liked Jared for a long time and ever since that day in History he had worn that special look he reserved just for her whenever he looked at her. Kim would be lying if she said she didn't love it. Tomorrow night really couldn't come quickly enough.

"Anyway," Katie said, "Now that you and Jared are dating, I'm sure you'll see a lot more of Paul. And I know this is a lot to ask of you, Kim, but please don't say anything about this to, well, anyone, really. I've been thinking ever since I saw Paul with the two of you yesterday, and I'm slowly realizing that Gene deserves to know about his daughter and it really has been wrong of me to keep her from him. It's better late than never, right?"

"I won't say anything, Mom," Kim promised. "Just please make sure you _do_ say something to him because…maybe he will want to know her, and I know I wish my dad wanted to know me."

"Oh Kim…" Katie sighed softly, reaching across the car and pulling her daughter into a hug, which Kim gladly returned. No matter what, mom hugs were always the best.

"Now," Katie said, attempting to brighten the atmosphere in the car as she released her grip on Kim. "What do you say we finally get out of this car, go inside and have a girls night? We can watch a movie and eat ice cream…ooh! And we can pick an outfit for your date tomorrow with Jared!"

Kim smiled widely at her. "That sounds great, Mom."

**a/n—Random Poll: I have an idea for a plotline involving who Kim's dad is, thoughts on including it? It's actually an incredibly vague plotline at the moment but, minor spoiler alert that isn't quite a spoiler, it wouldn't actually come into play until approximately Chapter 27, which is as far as I have things outlined right now. Anyway, I'd love to know what people have to say about this/what else they might like to see, and I'll see what I can do. Please review and let me know! And, as always, I hope you're all enjoying the story so far and thanks for reading!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

Jared was nervous. Beyond nervous. In fact, he was pretty sure he was about to start hyperventilating.

WHY was it taking so long for Kim to come to the front door?

The rational part of his brain told him it was because he had only knocked three seconds ago. But the more prevalent, ridiculously irrational part of his brain told him it was because she had completely changed her mind and no longer wanted to go out with him. And then suddenly Kim was there pulling the door open, and Jared decided he was going to have to start refusing to listen to all of the second-guessing he'd been doing lately. Seriously, Kim had never given him a reason to doubt her so he didn't know why he kept doing it.

_Oh, probably because you know you don't deserve her and you're just waiting for her to come to her senses and realize that, too._

Shutting down that line of thought with a quick shake of his head, Jared refocused his attention on Kim with a wide smile.

"Hey, Kim," Jared said, and even though she smiled back easily, he could tell that she was nervous too. This observation calmed him down immensely; if she was nervous that must mean she wanted things to go well tonight just as much as he did. "You look really pretty."

And she did. Unlike any other time he had ever seen her, she was wearing a dress and, in the back of his mind, Jared couldn't help but start thinking of ways to convince her to wear one more often—completely disregarding the typically cool climate they lived in, how come it had taken him this long to discover she'd been hiding such fabulous legs under the jeans she usually wore? She had also put on makeup, but it didn't look nasty on her like so many other girls who caked it on their faces. Kim's makeup was so subtle that Jared was pretty sure he wouldn't have noticed it was there if he hadn't spent the better part of the past three weeks staring at her, and therefore was well aware of how beautiful she already was without any of the stuff. Tonight, though, her beauty was enhanced.

To Jared's surprise and overwhelming dismay, however, Kim merely grimaced at his compliment. _Good grief_, she wasn't one of those girls who refused to believe any compliments she was given, was she? Had he really not gotten to know her _at all_ in the past three weeks?

"My mom practically tied me down so that she could put makeup on me," Kim said, her grimace more pronounced as she spoke. "And then she made me promise not to wash it all off because apparently 'it makes my eyes pop.' All I know is you're just lucky she left for work ten minutes ago, otherwise we'd be stuck here forever while she took more pictures of us than she'd ever know what to do with. Oh, and hi, by the way."

Jared simply stared at Kim for a moment before bursting into laughter. Clearly he also needed to stop second-guessing himself when it came to matters concerning Kim.

"I told you she's crazy," Kim said, a blush rising on her cheeks. "Especially when she sets her mind to something, such as the past twenty-four hours we've spent having mother-daughter bonding time at her insistence."

Jared merely shook his head and held out his hand for Kim to take, which she did immediately. He knew that it upset Kim how much her mom had to work and therefore how much time she had to be away from her daughters. And for all that she appeared to be complaining about her mom's recent actions, Jared was almost positive that she was actually quite happy to spend all of that time with her mom. For Kim's sake, Jared hoped this wasn't just a one-time thing and that Katie would be able to make time for each of her daughters from now on.

Jared led Kim over to his truck, only releasing her hand when he moved to open the door for her.

"For you, m'lady," Jared said with a theatrical bow, gesturing for her to get in. He was well aware that he was acting ridiculous, but it was all in the hope that it would get Kim to relax a little bit. Jared was determined to make this date perfect and that wasn't going to happen if she stayed as nervous as she still currently was.

And, sure enough, Kim let out a small giggle as she stepped into the truck. It was music to Jared's ears.

The next hour was spent in near-constant conversation, mostly about Kim's visit to her grandma's the previous day. Jared was determined to learn everything there was to know about Kim—and, by extension, her family. And so, over the course of the car ride, Jared learned about Kim's childhood being raised by her mom and grandma, how devastated Kim was when her grandma decided three years ago to move to the Hoh reservation when the older woman's brother-in-law died so that her sister wasn't alone, how much Kim enjoyed getting to visit her grandma, and the secret ingredient her grandma used to make the world's best chocolate chip cookies.

Jared loved every minute of it—although Kim had been adamant that he never reveal the secret ingredient to anyone on pain of death, while also lamenting that she didn't understand how the long-kept secret had just slipped out so easily. Jared insisted it was because of his boyish charm, but Kim didn't seem quite so convinced.

Before either of them knew it, they were entering Port Angeles and Jared had parked next to the movie theatre.

"So," Jared began nervously, having turned to face Kim after shutting off the ignition, "I have something to confess."

"You're a serial killer, aren't you?" Kim questioned immediately.

Jared's thoughts flickered briefly to his role as a tribal protector…a serial killer of bloodsuckers, maybe. He grinned at Kim, "Well I _had_ been hoping to keep that from you until _at least_ after our fifth date."

For some reason that was not immediately discernible to Jared, Kim's heart seemed to skip a beat after he said that.

"What I need to confess right now, though," Jared continued, "Is that I'm pretty sure we're about to go on the most cliché first date ever."

"Dinner and a movie?" Kim asked knowingly.

Jared nodded. "Is that…okay?" He asked hesitantly. _Please say yes. Please say yes._

"Well," Kim said slowly, "I suppose it depends…now that I know how you're planning to end our fifth date, will it at least be the most fantastic date ever up until your big confession? Because if we don't have a great fifth date, I might just have to cut my losses now."

Jared immediately scoffed, "It's going to be the best fifth date ever. Obviously I had to get the cliché date out of the way first before we could get to the good ones. So, what do you say? Are you ready for this?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Kim replied with a shrug.

Well Jared was going to take that as a good sign. It didn't _appear_ as if her nerves were getting the best of her any longer, though he wasn't quite sure the same could be said for him. The night was still young and there were plenty of things that could still go wrong, no matter how perfectly he wanted the date to go. But worrying so much wasn't going to do him much good; he needed to focus on making sure Kim had a good-no, _great_ time with him.

After helping Kim out of the truck, Jared casually slipped his hand into Kim's. He was beyond pleased to note that her only reaction was to thread her fingers through his. This was definitely progress. He might not have too much to worry about after all.

"So," Jared began as they approached the ticket booth, "I thought we could see _Fever Pitch_. It got pretty decent reviews and it's a romantic comedy about baseball, and even if it's not about the Mariners, there's bound to be something we both like about it, right?"

Jared promptly cut off his own rambling as he looked nervously at Kim. He really hoped he wasn't completely missing the mark on this one—that would be an awful start to their actual date. But judging from Kim's unreadable expression, Jared might have something to at least be slightly concerned about.

"Or…" Kim said slowly, glancing at the list of movie times, "We could go see _Batman Begins_. Because you're a teenage boy and I doubt you want to see a romantic comedy even if it does have baseball in it."

"But what if _you_ do?" Jared pressed, because honestly, he would probably be happy with any movie if Kim wanted to see it. And girls liked romantic movies, right?

"But what if I _don't_?" Kim stated.

Jared narrowed his eyes at her slightly. Well she _appeared_ to be serious and not just saying that in an attempt to make him happy. Because really, he _would_ rather do anything other than sit through a romantic comedy, even if Kim was there with him.

"You're sure?" Jared asked hesitantly.

"I'm clearly going to have to show you my comic book collection sometime soon," Kim replied with a grin. "Yes, I'm _sure_ I want to go see _Batman Begins_. Plus, we don't want _too_ many clichés."

"Oh, thank god," Jared said with a relieved sigh. "I don't even like baseball that much when it _is_ about the Mariners. Two for Batman it is."

Kim let out a short giggle that set Jared's heart racing as he pulled her up to the ticket booth with him. And he couldn't help but think that maybe this date would be even more perfect if it _didn't_ go exactly as he had planned…

One superhero origin story, dinner at Kim's favorite Mexican restaurant, and several hours later found Kim and Jared back where they had started the night: standing on her front porch.

"Your mom's not back from work in time to take some end-of-date pictures, is she?" Jared questioned, only slightly concerned, his eyes flickering briefly to the dark house before him before returning to staring into Kim's beautiful brown eyes.

Kim laughed lightly. "She won't be home for another hour or two, probably."

"Oh good," Jared said, "This way I'll be able to prep myself for some picture-taking and make sure I'm as photogenic as possible before our next date."

"Will there be a next date?" Kim asked, followed immediately by the appearance of that adorable blush across her cheeks.

"Well," Jared said slowly, fighting not to worry that she was asking because she had decided she didn't want to date him after tonight. "Unless you're about to kick me to the curb and declare you never want to see my ugly face again, I'd say yeah, there's _definitely_ going to be a next date. I had a really good time with you tonight, Kim."

"Well good," Kim replied, and Jared could tell she was valiantly attempting—and failing—to fight back her still-present blush. "I had a really nice time with you, too, Jared; clichés and all."

"Well good," Jared echoed Kim teasingly and, to his secret delight, her blush darkened. However, she also smiled at him now and he couldn't help it as his gaze immediately lowered to her lips.

Truthfully, this had been the part of the night that he had been most nervous about. But now that the moment was here, he found that his nerves had disappeared. Because this was Kim and they had just had a really nice night together and, even before that, things had been pretty good between them.

And so before he could second-guess things, he bent down slightly and pressed his lips gently against Kim's in a brief kiss.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Jared said with a small smile, regretting that he had to pull away from Kim's soft lips, but not wanting to overwhelm her. "We'll hang out…maybe we can go to the beach."

Kim merely nodded, her entire face bright red, though there was a smile on her face.

"I can come over around eleven?" Jared questioned, naming the most socially-acceptable time of morning he could think of to show up at someone's house for a visit.

Kim nodded once more and Jared grinned. Clearly his kiss had rendered her speechless, because Kim also had a slightly dazed expression on her face.

"Perfect," Jared said, before swooping down once more, this time to peck Kim quickly on the cheek. Straightening up, he immediately began backing down her front steps, still speaking as he went. "I had a _really_ good time tonight," He repeated, "I'll see you tomorrow."

And finally Kim faintly replied, "It's a date."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

Life was perfect, Kim couldn't help but think.

After their amazing first date—and a _perfect_ first kiss—Kim and Jared had gone on three more dates. (Embarrassingly, this of course meant that her mom had gotten the chance to take a ridiculous number of pictures of the two of them.) And when Jared wasn't working—wherever it was he worked, because he never had really given a straight answer to that question—he tended to show up at Kim's house "just to spend time with her" because he was adorable like that.

_Everything_ was perfect.

Well, almost everything, Kim corrected herself.

Today, Jared was taking Kim over to his friend Sam Uley's house so that he could introduce them. He was calling it their fourth-and-a-half date because it was going to be more than just hanging out like they did most days, but yet not quite a date because his friends would be there, too. Naturally, this made Kim nervous because she was meeting someone new and that always tended to make her slightly anxious, especially since it was clearly important to Jared that she meet Sam.

But none of that was really what Kim had a problem with or what kept her life these days from being completely perfect.

No, the problem was that Paul was going to be at Sam's house, too.

Paul, whom Kim hadn't seen since learning he was actually her younger sister's half-brother.

Kim had no idea how she was going to get through this situation.

It had been easy enough to promise her mom not to say anything. And not having Kylie around for the past week and a half made it simple to just not think about the younger girl's parentage. Plus, it was hard to think about much else than the present moment when she was in Jared's company, which was rather a lot lately. But that was all before being faced with the prospect of being about to spend several hours in Paul's company.

How on earth was she going to keep her cool when she knew a secret that could have such a huge, potentially life-altering impact on Paul?

This might not end well, Kim concluded to herself as Jared parked in front of a tiny house. Caught in a bout of anxiety-induced melancholy as she observed the house with its fading gray paint, clearly weathered front door, and the overgrown window box beside the door, Kim couldn't help but think that the house was rather sad-looking.

"Are you okay?" Jared's voice broke Kim out of her thoughts. She shifted slightly in her seat to see that he was looking at her in concern. Belatedly, she realized the ten minute drive they had just taken had been made in relative silence, save for their greetings when he had first picked her up from her house.

"I'm fine," Kim replied, forcing a weak smile onto her face. "Meeting new people just isn't always my thing," She continued, and it was entirely true, even if it wasn't the majority of the reason for her recent silence.

"We can leave, if you want," Jared offered immediately. "Sam will understand. And even if he didn't, I would never make you do something you're not comfortable with."

He spoke so earnestly that Kim couldn't help but smile for real now. Jared could be so sweet and sincere. And if there was one thing Kim had picked up on in the past month of spending time with him, it was that Jared would go out of his way to do basically whatever she wanted. Truthfully, it was a bit of a perplexing trait for a teenage boy to possess, but he didn't smother her with it, so it worked out alright.

"Jared," Kim said firmly, "I _want_ to meet Sam; I just tend to get nervous and psych myself out about these kinds of things. I'm sure everything will be fine."

And she _was_ sure. At least so far as meeting Sam Uley was concerned.

"It'll be great," Jared replied, an easy grin spreading across his face as he unbuckled his seat belt. "Sam is really excited to finally meet you."

"Finally?" Kim questioned as she also unbuckled and got out of the truck.

"Oh…er…" As he walked around the truck to stand beside Kim, Jared rubbed the back of his neck looking the slightest bit embarrassed. And Kim was secretly pleased to see that for once he was the one blushing about something. "Yeah…" He continued slowly, "I may have mentioned you to him a few times."

"More like he never shuts up about you," A familiar voice suddenly sounded.

Kim looked to her right to see that Paul was now standing on the front porch, a smirk on his face and a tall, muscular, vaguely familiar-looking man standing behind him.

"Shut up," Jared replied immediately, and Kim looked back at him to see that his blush had darkened more. She grinned.

"So this is the famous Kim?" A deep, slightly gruff voice spoke up and Kim turned her full attention to Sam now.

"This is Kim," Jared responded, wrapping a warm arm around Kim's shoulders. Seriously though, he was always so warm. Like…chronically warm. He was like a space heater. But that was something better left to ponder another time, Kim thought to herself. Meeting new people was bad enough, it would be _so_ embarrassing if she missed her introduction because she was too busy thinking about how hot Jared was.

And yes, for the record, that was more than just hot temperature-wise. It was pretty difficult to completely ignore how ridiculously attractive Jared was when she was in such close proximity to him. But again, she digressed.

"It's nice to meet you, Kim," Sam said then. And, although he was easily bigger than both Jared and Paul and as a result quite intimidating-looking, she thought she saw a mischievous glint in his eyes. Sure enough, he continued, "Jared does mention you quite often; I'm glad I can finally meet you face-to-face."

"It's nice to meet you, too," Kim replied, immensely proud of herself for not whispering her reply. Huh. Maybe she was finally getting over that god-awful aversion to meeting new people thing.

"Well as great as this is," Paul suddenly spoke up, making Kim visibly start in surprise, "I think I'm going back inside where I can actually sit down and relax."

Sam rolled his eyes as Paul pushed past him to head back into the house, but quickly followed him in. Keeping his arm firmly around Kim, Jared guided her over to the small house as well.

Once inside, Kim could easily tell that this was the home of a very single twenty-year-old guy. There was fishing gear just inside the door alongside a small pile of shoes that, at quick glance, did not appear to contain any pairs. And, although the interior walls had clearly been painted more recently than the exterior, they were all still a plain white, without even a single picture frame as decoration. Once Jared had directed her further into the house—through the entryway/kitchen where Sam appeared to be getting drinks for everyone—they ended up in the living room, which was sparsely furnished with a beat-up couch, an even more beat-up armchair, and a flat-screen television hanging on the wall. Paul was already occupying the armchair, remote in hand.

"What were you guys even doing outside?" Jared asked him, finally—sadly—removing his arm from around Kim as he took a seat on the couch, only to grab her hand and pull her down beside him.

"You're lucky I like sitting next to you," Kim informed Jared before Paul could answer the question. "Otherwise we'd be having a lovely discussion about that man-handling just now."

Paul let out a loud, almost bark-like laugh. "I've missed Sassy Kim since school ended."

Jared ignored Paul in favor of turning wide eyes to Kim. "It's because I love every second we spend together and can't bear to be parted from you for longer than a moment?" He offered, though it came out sounding more like a question than an explanation.

Kim merely rolled her eyes good-naturedly and looked back at Paul expectantly.

"I heard the truck pull up and thought you were the pizza guy," He explained with a shrug.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

Jared had been nervous about bringing Kim over to Sam's house today. He knew his pack brothers—they were bound to scare her away for some reason or another.

Of course, to be completely honest, it wasn't Paul that Jared worried about so much as Sam. Kim had already been on friendly enough terms with Paul from their lunch hour interactions, but Sam was a whole different story. She didn't know him. And Sam was known to be rather intimidating. Actually, sometimes he could be downright scary. Not that Jared was speaking from personal experience. No, definitely not. _Of course_ there had never been even the briefest moment when Jared was scared of his Alpha. Nope, not a chance at all.

It was all a moot point anyway, because Kim didn't appear to be intimidated by Sam at all.

Indeed, once Sam had finally made it into the living room—with both drinks for everyone and the pizzas that had finally arrived—Kim immediately struck up a conversation with Same when he took a seat on the couch on her other side. To be honest, Jared wasn't even one-hundred percent sure what all the two were talking about (Surely they hadn't been having an hour-long conversation about Sam's construction job). What he did know, though, was that it made him immensely happy to see his imprint and his Alpha getting along so well.

What was that she said about meeting new people not being 'her thing'?

"Jared," Sam said suddenly, pausing his conversation with Kim as he glanced out the window. "It's your shift for patrol in twenty minutes."

At this, Jared frowned and turned towards the window as well to see that rain clouds were coming in, bringing an end to what had been an unusually sunny day for the Olympic Peninsula. Jared sighed. The lack of sun meant a greater chance of a cold one appearing. Patrols were definitely back on.

"Patrol?" Kim questioned, and as one Jared, Sam, and Paul all froze.

Well shit. So far, Jared had successfully avoided explaining to Kim just what it was he did when he went to work every day. Mostly this was so he could avoid making up any elaborate lies or half-truths Kim would be sure to question. Or, rather, simply so he just didn't need to lie to Kim at all. Also, by not talking about patrol at all, Jared could happily pretend that he really was just another normal teenager in a normal teenage relationship, just like Kim thought they were. And Sam and Paul both knew Kim didn't know the whole truth about what Jared was, yet. It wasn't like with Sam and Emily; Jared had plenty of time to explain things to her and he was slowly working his way up to telling Kim about shape-shifting wolves and imprints. But he wasn't quite ready for the truth to come out just yet.

"Patrol the reservation," Sam seemed to recover first. Or maybe it was just that he saw that Jared was clearly still frozen in panic. "It's what we do; kind of like volunteer policemen. The elders put us in charge of keeping the tribe safe."

Kim frowned slightly. "The elders put _teenagers_ in charge of that?"

"What? You don't think we can handle it?" Paul asked sharply, his hands beginning to shake slightly at the perceived threat against him and his pack mates. Kim jumped slightly, clearly surprised at Paul's sudden, seemingly irrational, anger.

This finally unfroze Jared, who was on his feet in the blink of an eye, pulling Kim up behind him.

"We should head out now if I'm on in twenty," Jared spoke swiftly, steering Kim out of the room in front of him and keeping himself between his imprint and a perceived threat to her. "I'll be back after I bring Kim home."

"It was nice to meet you, Sam!" Kim called over her shoulder as Jared continued you to push her gently, but firmly, out of the house.

Once Jared was sure Kim was safely in the truck, he got in as well and immediately began speeding away from Sam's house and a potentially phased and angry wolf. He _needed_ to keep his imprint safe.

"What was that about?" Kim asked immediately once Jared started driving away, her tone making him flinch. He glanced over at her to see a severe frown across her face, causing him to flinch again.

"It's complicated," Jared said slowly.

"Which part?" Kim asked dryly.

Jared sighed, but admitted, "All of it. The job…Paul's anger…why we left so quickly."

"And are you going to explain it to me? Any of it?" Kim pressed, and now Jared could pick up the faint hint of concern in her tone. Kim was worried about him. Well that finally answered the lingering question in the back of his mind about whether or not she'd heard the rumors going around La Push that he, Paul, and Sam had formed a gang. But it also made him feel guilty because he couldn't explain it all right now and relieve her worry.

Jared sighed again as he pulled to a stop in from of Kim's house, turning to her with a remorseful expression.

"I can't right now," He told her, "There isn't enough time; I have to get back to Sam's for pa—work. But I_will_ tell you," Jared continued earnestly, impulsively reaching forward and grasping one of Kim's hands lightly in his own.

"Actually," He continued with a self-deprecating roll of his eyes, "This has everything to do with my post-fifth date serial killer confession."

And finally, _finally_ some of the tension appeared to drain from Kim as a small smile flickered across her face.

"I have to work tomorrow morning," Jared said, "But after that I'm all yours. I'll explain _everything_ to you then. I can even take you on that best fifth date ever that I promised you, if you want?" He finished hesitantly, sure she was going to completely shoot him down.

Kim was silent for a long moment, searching Jared's face for…something. What, he wasn't entirely sure, but she seemed to have found it when she finally replied.

"Promise?" She checked.

"I promise," Jared stated firmly.

* * *

><p>The next day as Jared ran patrol, his thoughts were consumed with how to explain everything to Kim. He still didn't have a clue how exactly to go about all of this. Honestly, logically it shouldn't be as difficult as he was making it out to be. But then again, his supernatural life hadn't exactly come with a How-To manual. He, Paul, and Sam were constantly trying to figure things out as they went (though the elders were some help). Take Paul for example: telling him to calm down only went so far. All of them needed to figure out how to get a handle on controlling their emotions without Sam having to Alpha-order them, as Jared had found out happened yesterday to Paul after he and Kim left Sam's house.<p>

And then it hit him: Sam.

Jared _did_ have a manual of sorts, and it was basically everything that had been shared through the pack mind—everything they had each experienced so far as wolves.

Jared had learned all about imprinting through Sam. And he'd seen the memory of Sam explaining the whole wolf thing to Emily. Hell, Jared had even met Emily in his wolf form. All he had to do was explain things to Kim and then _show_ her he was telling the truth. It was as simple as that.

_Why_ had it taken so long to figure this out?

But just as Jared was congratulating himself on figuring out how to introduce Kim to the supernatural world, he had only a split-second warning as he felt the tell-tale shimmer of someone phasing before he was bombarded through the pack mind with a kaleidoscope of feelings and images.

_Anger._

_Blood._

"_You're just like your father!"_

_A man yelling and feeling frightened by it._

_The same man walking away._

_A door slamming._

_More blood._

_Agony._

_Not my father._

_Not my father._

"_Just like your father!"_

_Rage._

_Not my father!_

_So much blood. Why was there so much blood?_

_Emily!_

Jared's blood ran cold as he saw through Sam's eyes.

Emily was on the ground, deathly still, blood pooling around her, three gashes down the entire right side of her face and all the way down her right arm.

_So much blood! Not my father! Emily!_

_Sam!_ Jared shouted through the pack link._ You need to calm down. Where are you? I can get help._

But Sam didn't respond, panicking over the fight he'd just had with Emily…_all of the blood…she's too still…I killed her!_

Jared howled as loud as possible and within seconds Paul had phased in, recognizing the alarm being sounded.

_You need to get Sue Clearwater,_ Jared told him without preamble as Sam's thoughts bombarded Paul as well now, beginning to sprint for the Makah reservation. There was only one place they could be, where Sam and Emily always met up to talk lately. _Emily needs help. Now. Sam phased and she was too close._

A heartbeat later and Paul was gone again, off to get help.

Jared pushed himself harder. He needed to get to Emily. He needed to help her. She was pack.

When Jared reached the familiar clearing, he phased back, stumbling slightly as he rapidly attempted to pull on his shorts and walk towards Emily's motionless and bloody form at the same time.

Suddenly, Sam appeared, a large black wolf leaping in between Jared and Emily's body, teeth bared and snarling loudly.

"I'm here to help her," Jared said instantly, raising his hands cautiously, showing that he meant no harm. "Let me help Emily, Sam. Let me pass."

Whining anxiously now, Sam darted aside immediately and began pacing in a circle around the perimeter of the clearing.

Jared rushed forward and collapsed to his knees beside Emily, whose rapid, shallow breathing and weak pulse he could now just make out at this close proximity to her. He didn't have time to sigh in relief that she was still alive; he recognized that she was going into shock. Gathering her into his arms as carefully as the pressing situation would allow, Jared held her close, using his high body temperature to warm her. She couldn't die. He wouldn't let her. More help was coming.

His body heat seemed to help as Emily's skin appeared to be less clammy and her eyes slowly blinked open, her gaze disoriented.

In a flash, Sam's huge wolf form was beside them. He was still whimpering in agony and Jared saw Emily's jaw attempting to move, to fight the pain and speak through her ruined mouth.

"It's okay, Emily," Jared said quickly, "Don't try to talk; it will only hurt you more. I've got you. Everything is going to be okay. Help is coming."

He looked up as his enhanced wolf hearing caught the distant but familiar sound of his truck's engine. He held Emily closer.

"Help is coming."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

Contrary to his promise, Jared did not show up at Kim's house the next day. At all.

Kim's initial reaction was to worry. She had no idea what this patrolling job entailed. Something could have happened to him; he might be hurt.

Her worry quickly turned to anger when she called Jared's house that night after not hearing from him, only to be told that he was "out with friends." She could have gotten over her slightly irrational anger if it wasn't for the fact that when she called again the next day—because, honestly, it really wasn't like Jared to be a complete no-show like this and she was genuinely worried, even if it did make her seem like a bit of a stalker—his parents' answer changed to "on a last-minute camping trip."

Things easily became clear to Kim: he had lied to her. He wasn't going to give her any sort of explanation at all; he probably never intended to. And now he was avoiding her as a result. Out with friends? Psh. The only people that Jared spent time with these days were her, Paul, and Sam. And he definitely wasn't with_her_ right now. He had to be avoiding her.

The Kim of two weeks ago probably would have brushed this off. She would have still been upset—she _really_ liked Jared after all—but marginally less so than she was now. Because now she had actually spent meaningful time with Jared—hell, he was basically her boyfriend, even if they hadn't put an exact label on it past the fact they were obviously dating. And he had insisted back at the beginning that he was asking her out because he wanted to spend time with her. And if his parents said that he was out with friends, then clearly there hadn't been some huge emergency that would keep him from contacting her.

Clearly he was avoiding her. There was no other obvious explanation for it.

And that made Kim angry; angry because her feelings were hurt.

Angry because, after four days of doing nothing but moping around the house and watching a mind-numbing amount of TV, her mom was starting to get fed up with said moping and had just this morning threatened to make her get a summer job at the diner doing dishes.

Angry because this was all Jared's fault.

Angry because, despite it all, she still missed him.

God, she was the worst kind of pathetic.

_Ring! Ring!_

Pathetic and ringing, apparently.

_Ring! Ring!_

Frowning slightly, Kim felt through the folds of the blanket she was currently huddled under on the couch. She finally found the phone stuffed between two cushions, where it had been abandoned after her mom called on her lunch break to see if Kim had listened to her threat and had "gotten her lazy ass off the couch yet." (For the record, Kim lied and said she was just about to head out for a walk on the beach before hanging up and going back to trying to understand what was happening on her new favorite Spanish soap opera.)

_Ring! Ring!_

Kim frowned deeper when she looked at the caller ID. The last thing she wanted to do right now was talk to anyone, let alone her grandma or, more likely, Kylie. But ignoring the call probably wasn't the best idea either.

"Hello?" Kim questioned, placing the phone to her ear and attempting to keep her tone as even as possible—Gram and/or Kylie were sure to report back to her mom that she remained in her sullen mood, after all.

"Kim?" Came the response, and Kim automatically sat up at the panicked sound of her grandma's voice.

"Gram? Is something wrong?" Kim questioned urgently.

"Kylie had an accident."

Kim was sure her heart stopped at those four words.

"I need to take her to the hospital; I think she broke her leg—it looks pretty bad right now. My neighbor is going to drive me but your mom should meet us there and I couldn't get a hold of her," Her grandma continued in a rush.

"You just take care of Kylie, Gram," Kim said, forcing herself to remain calm. "I'll track mom down. Are you taking her to Forks Hospital?"

"No other option, is there?" Her grandma replied, a hint of bitterness overtaking the panic.

"We'll meet you there," Kim stated, choosing not to comment on the disdain for Forks Hospital her grandma and many of the more traditional, older members of the tribe held.

Five minutes later, Kim had managed to track down her mom and was hurriedly throwing on the first semi-clean clothes she could find before her mom picked her up on the way from the diner to the hospital. So consumed with worry for her sister, Kim didn't even realize that she had so easily stopped feeling sorry for herself over Jared's absence, let alone that the clothes she was now wearing were the exact same ones she had worn the last time she saw Jared, days ago at Sam's house.

The honk of a car horn outside alerted Kim to her mom's arrival, and she quickly ran out the door and jumped in the car. Katie began pulling out of the driveway before Kim even had a chance to buckle her seatbelt.

The drive to the hospital was filled with a tense silence. Katie tended to internalize all of her worrying, and Kim wasn't about to try to break her mom out of that because she really wasn't sure what she could say to comfort her when she was just as worried about Kylie. Honestly, they didn't even know what had happened to Kylie or how bad it really was. But Kim knew her grandma wasn't one to fret over the small stuff and the way she sounded on the phone was more panicked than Kim had ever heard her before.

Upon reaching the hospital and entering the emergency room, Katie immediately made her way over to the front desk with Kim hot on her heels.

"I'm looked for Kylie Connweller; I'm her mother," Katie told the woman behind the desk, and Kim easily recognized the forced-calm tone she used.

After being directed to a room just down the hall, Katie and Kim quickly made their way there, only to enter and find it empty.

"It was room one-oh-eight, right?" Katie questioned, looking briefly at Kim for confirmation before turning back to frown at the empty room they were standing in.

"I thought that's what she said," Kim replied. "But maybe she read it wrong; I'll go back really quick to double-check with her."

But before Kim could make a move to exit the room, the door opened and a nurse entered, followed shortly by Kim's grandma pushing Kylie in a wheelchair.

"Mommy!" Kylie said excitedly, perking up immediately at the sight of her mom and sister. "And Kimmie! Guess what! I just got an x-ray of my leg and the doctor said he can show me a picture of my _bones_! Isn't that so _cool_?"

Kim couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Clearly there wasn't anything _too_ wrong with Kylie if she was acting like her normal cheerful self. Maybe her grandma had over-reacted to the whole prospect of Kylie being injured. Of course, now that Kim was actually thinking about it, she really hoped that her grandma's panic had been over Kylie being injured and not her superstitions about the hospital.

After Kylie had been transferred to the bed, the nurse informed them that Dr. Cullen would be in just as soon as the x-rays were ready and then left the room.

"What on Earth happened?" Katie demanded as she perched on the side of Kylie's bed and gently brushed a few stray strands of hair out of her daughter's face.

"I climbed the big tree in Gram's backyard!" Kylie exclaimed at the same time her grandma said, "It's my fault, I wasn't watching her close enough."

Katie frowned at her daughter. "What have I told you about that tree? Not until you're older."

"But I _am_ older, mom," Kylie protested. "I'm a whole _year_ older than last time I tried."

"And did you fall out and break your leg anyway?" Katie questioned. When Kylie looked away guiltily, she continued, "You're still not old enough, honey. And you're lucky that the only thing that happened was a potentially broken leg."

Any further scolding for Kylie was interrupted, however, by the door opening once more. Kim looked over to see a pale blonde man enter the room. He was wearing a white lab coat and, quite frankly, he looked inhumanly beautiful. This must be Dr. Cullen.

"Good afternoon," He said with a smile, his gaze focused on the bed containing his small patient.

He began walking across the room but as he reached Kim, who was closest to the door, he seemed to falter momentarily. He gave Kim what could only be described as a quizzical look and she couldn't help but take an involuntary step back at the sight of his strange golden eyes.

The doctor recovered quickly though, barely missing a beat as he turned his smile back on Kylie. "And how are you feeling now, Miss Connweller?"

"I think that lollipop helped make my leg feel better," Kylie told him seriously. "I should probably eat another one."

"Kylie!" Katie scolded lightly, though Kim didn't miss how her mom sat up straighter in the presence of the attractive young doctor.

Dr. Cullen laughed, however—even his laugh was perfect, Kim thought to herself with a slight shiver. Personally, he was starting to give her the creeps. Maybe her grandma had been on to something with avoiding the hospital once Dr. Cullen started working here…

"Her leg is definitely broken," Dr. Cullen informed Katie, then. "It's a clean break, though, so we should be able to get a cast on her as soon as possible."

From there the discussion evolved into how Kylie was going to get around and how to take care of her cast, which Kim tuned out in favor of actually talking to her sister, who she hadn't seen in two weeks and who she had secretly kind of missed having around. She tuned back into the conversation, however, when she heard her name mentioned.

"—Kim to help me out," Katie was saying and Kim looked up to see that her mom and grandma were in the middle of what appeared to be some kind of disagreement that she somehow played into. Also, while she hadn't been paying attention, Dr. Cullen had apparently put the cast on Kylie and then left because he was now nowhere to be found and the younger girl's leg was bright pink.

"Kim can help you with what?" Kim interrupted.

"Absolutely nothing," Gram replied promptly, "Katie, I already told you I'll be fine taking Kylie back home with me. There's absolutely no reason we can't spend the rest of the summer exactly as we had planned."

Ah, so that's what they were arguing about then: who was taking Kylie home with them.

"Mom," Katie sounded extremely frustrated, "There is one very big reason our plans are going to have to change: Kylie won't be able to get around your house anymore. She can't navigate all of those stairs and you and Aunt Liz won't be able to carry her. Kylie will have a much easier time at our house, plus she'll have Kim and I to help her out."

They were interrupted once more by the door opening, this time it was the nurse from earlier with a pair of crutches for Kylie to try out. No matter, though, Kim had a feeling she knew who was going to end up the victor in that argument; her mom always had been very singularly determined to do what she thought was best for her kids. Even if it did mean that Kim's summer of freedom was coming to a very abrupt end.

She didn't really mind, though. She really had missed having Kylie around…and it was about time she had a real distraction from Jared's overwhelming absence. (Funny, it was ages since she'd actually thought about him last; clearly she was making progress with using Kylie as a distraction already.)

Sure enough, several hours later—after all of the paperwork and then driving her grandma back to the Hoh reservation—Kim, Kylie, and Katie were all at home in La Push once again. As her mom parked the car, Kim turned to the back seat to see that Kylie had drifted off to sleep at some point during the drive home. Well, it was understandable considering the eventful day she'd had.

"I'll carry her inside," Kim offered, turning back to address her mom face-to-face. "Can you just get the doors for me?"

It was lucky, Kim thought to herself, that Kylie slept like the dead, otherwise she was sure to have woken up at some point during all of the maneuvering Kim had to do to get her sister out of the car. Also luckily, the seven-year-old still weighed relatively little, even with her new, slightly bulky cast. Of course, Kim was sure that opinion was sure to change within a few days of having to lift up and carry her sister to places she simply couldn't get with crutches.

Actually, scratch that thought. Standing here waiting for her mom to find the house key she had literally just been carrying was long enough for Kylie to get heavy in Kim's arms. Before she could suggest that her mom make sure she hadn't dropped the keys in the short distance between the car and the front door, though, a strange feeling washed over Kim. The skin on the back of Kim's neck prickled, like that feeling people always described when they thought someone was watching them.

Slowly, nervous about what she might see, Kim turned and scanned the front yard and the line of trees on the other side of the road that marked the edge of the forest. She couldn't see anything, but that didn't mean much considering the sun had long since set and it was quite dark outside.

The feeling of the being watched only intensified.

"Found them!" Katie suddenly exclaimed triumphantly and Kim jumped in shock. Katie didn't seem to notice the fright she gave her daughter as she quickly unlocked the front door and ushered Kim inside.

Once inside the house, Kim forced herself to shake off her earlier feelings as she watched her mom lock up the front door again. Everything was fine. If there _was_ anything out there, then it had probably just been some kind of animal. It wouldn't be able to get into a locked house.

Everything was just fine.

**a/n—I have a serious question for all of you: do people actually like this story anymore? Typically, I tend to judge whether or not readers like the direction I take a story in based on the feedback I get in reviews. And while the feedback for the first ten or so chapters was pretty great, in the past 5 chapters, I've gotten an average of less than 2 reviews each and half of them were from the same person; this was also at a point when I was questioning what direction to take the story in. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all of this to beg people for reviews (I myself am particularly bad at leaving reviews, in all honesty) and there's nothing I hate more than an author demanding a certain number of reviews before the next chapter is posted. However, I do know that I tend to be more interested in writing new chapters when I know that people are interested in reading them. So, if you feel like it, drop a review and tell me what you think so far or anything you'd like to see happen. And if you don't feel like it…well, provided I finish it, the next chapter should be up by next Friday (or Saturday if I forget to post on Friday like I did yesterday).**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

It was two days before Emily regained consciousness.

Two days in which Jared rarely left her side, staying with her because someone needed to make sure she was safe and his pack brother couldn't get enough control of his emotions to phase back even for a few minutes to see his injured imprint. Sam was a complete mess and Jared really hoped Emily would wake up soon and snap him out of it.

And on the third day she did just that. Well, wake up, that is.

The entire right side of Emily's face was covered in bandages, so when she finally did regain consciousness she could only see through her left eye. Luckily, Jared happened to be sitting on her left side (also luckily, Emily's family already went home for the night, so hopefully Jared would be able to easily feed her the cover story).

"Sam?" Emily's voice was garbled due to a combination of the stitches, bandages, numbing gel, and pain medication, but Jared easily made out what she was attempting to say. However, she obviously also wasn't seeing clearly because she looked directly at Jared when she spoke.

"Sorry, Em, it's Jared," He told her, gently covering her left hand with his own. "How are you feeling?"

"Numb…I can't feel…" He saw Emily's right hand twitch as she spoke. She must have tried to lift it, but hadn't been able to feel it.

"The doctors drugged you up pretty good," Jared said with the barest hint of a smile. "It's probably better this way, though. Now you won't feel any pain."

Emily was silent for a moment but then her one good eye finally focused on Jared's face.

"Where is Sam?"

Jared was saved from having to answer, though, by the appearance of a nurse in the room. Ostensibly she was there to give Emily another dose of pain killers, but when she saw that the patient was finally awake she immediately paged the doctor on duty. Soon enough, the room was bustling with people doing all sorts of medical things that Jared couldn't even begin to understand. What he could pick up on, though, was that Emily was definitely out of the danger zone now that she was awake. She was going to be okay.

Once the room cleared out again more than an hour later, Jared stepped back up beside Emily's bed, which had been adjusted so that she could sit up. She turned her head to face him as soon as he was beside her.

"Where is Sam?" She repeated. Although the bandages on her face had been changed, which improved her ability to move her mouth, her speech still wasn't one-hundred percent clear due to her face still being numb.

Jared sighed; there was no getting out of answering this time.

"Sam is here," He began slowly.

"One of the nurses said that you've been by my side the whole time I've been here," Emily interrupted immediately, "And that you were the one who brought me in. It's just been you, my parents, and my aunt."

The unspoken _No Sam_ hung accusingly in the air between them.

"Sam is…" Jared trailed off with another deep sigh. "Sam is completely wrecked about this whole situation. He's really upset and he can't phase back because of it. He _has_ been here the whole time you have, just…outside in the woods."

"I need to see him, Jared," Emily said firmly. "The doctor said it was a bear attack, but I know it wasn't. I_need_ to see Sam."

Jared would have smiled if it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation. Emily felt the pull of the imprint and she clearly wasn't trying to fight it any longer.

And then he realized: the imprint.

He had been with Emily for three days now, meaning he had completely vanished from his own imprint's life. Oh no! Kim! He _promised_ he would see her and explain everything to her and instead he completely disappeared. After doing his best to make sure everything went as perfectly as possible between them and that he didn't do anything stupid that would scare her away, he'd gone off and messed things up anyway. He had to go find her! He needed to explain what was happening and beg her forgiveness for breaking his promise. He needed to go do that right now!

"Jared?"

As much as it pained Jared to admit it, finding his imprint couldn't be his number one priority right now. Because right now Kim was probably the one pack member who had nothing to worry about (though he did hope she at least noticed his absence, let alone become slightly worried about it). And so, as he realized he had unconsciously started moving towards the room's only exit, Jared forced himself to turn back towards Emily.

"I'll talk to him," he finally told her, "Convince him to phase back."

"Please hurry," She replied.

Jared didn't have the heart to tell her that convincing Sam he wasn't a monster long enough to become human again so that he could be in the same, small room as the victim of his anger, who also happened to be his soul mate, wasn't going to be a swift or easy task.

Sure enough, after quickly locating Sam in the woods, it was more than fourteen hours before Jared was finally able to get Sam to phase back for longer than a few seconds. Unfortunately, by the time they were able to leave the shelter of the trees, the next day's visiting hours had begun and they happened to spot Emily's parents entering the hospital. Confronted with the sight of the clearly distraught couple, Sam's tenuous control snapped and Jared had to spend the next several hours calming his Alpha down once again.

Once the coast was finally clear again, though, Jared practically dragged Sam through the hospital to Emily's room. Jared was of course sympathetic to Sam's plight—how could he not be?—but he was also of the firm belief that the older man needed to get his act together so that Jared could be free to go find his own imprint (and potentially beg for her forgiveness).

Indeed, once he got Sam into Emily's room and was sure the pair was having their much-need heart-to-heart Jared was out of the hospital faster than you could blink.

He _needed_ to get back to La Push to see Kim.

He faced a minor setback, however, when he did reach Kim's house: she wasn't home.

Now, there were two distinct possibilities Jared could see once faced with this situation.

The first, naturally, was the worst case scenario: Kim was mad at him for standing her up and left town to avoid running into him ever again. Thankfully, though, Jared liked to think he possessed at least _some_ common sense, and rationalized that she wouldn't have left all of her belongings behind if she really did leave town forever. Therefore, she was bound to come back at some point…hopefully soon.

The second possibility was that she was simply out for the day.

Personally, Jared was pretty sure the first scenario had a lot more merit than the second. And logic really was on his side for this one. Because he _knew_ Kim, and he had spent more than enough time with her to know that her all-time favorite activity was curling up on the couch with any book (preferably of the comic variety, though that wasn't completely necessary) she could find, followed closely by her second favorite activity: curling up on the couch to watch whatever TV show was on the channel she randomly selected. If there was no one there to suggest it, Kim wasn't about to choose to leave her house of her own free will. Thus, with her mom always working, Kylie at their grandma's, and Jared essentially MIA, there was no reason at all for Kim to leave the house. So, clearly, she was angry at him and ran away to avoid him. Bam. Logic.

Except for the slight problem that he actually highly doubted Kim ran away; she really wasn't the type to do that. There was no doubt in his mind that she was upset with him, though; how could she not be, after all?

And that brought Jared right back to his original problem: where was Kim?

After discovering she wasn't home—and the brief resulting panic—Jared did his best to re-trace Kim's possible steps. The only problem, though, was that her scent stopped in the middle of her driveway. Oh there were faint traces around town, most notably at the grocery store and diner, but they were all days old and had mostly been washed away by the near-constant rain. She wasn't in her house, and yet she hadn't gone anywhere in town anytime recently. And with the way her scent disappeared so abruptly, it was clear she must have gotten in a car.

So where did she go?

The only way left to find out was to wait for her to return and then ask her himself.

And so Jared phased back into his wolf—having phased out to not cause mass panic while he searched for Kim's scent in town—and settled in under the cover of the trees across the street from Kim's home to wait for her to return, head resting on his paws as he stared resolutely at her house.

_So, you've made the official transition to full-time stalker, I see._

Well apparently Paul was phased in, too.

_Yeah, for the past four days now, try to keep up,_ Paul replied to Jared's observation, though there wasn't any real hostility or even bitterness on his part. He had been just as worried about their Alpha's imprint. And if covering all of the patrols so no leaches got onto their land while the pack was distracted was all he could do to help out, then that's what he was going to do.

_A stalker wouldn't forget to even think about Kim for nearly four days_, Jared couldn't help but reply.

_It's not like it wasn't for a good reason_, Paul pointed out.

_It's not like she knows that_, Jared shot back.

_You should probably explain it to her, then_, Paul replied as if this was the obvious solution.

_I don't have much of a choice, now, do I?_ Jared stated.

Jared immediately felt Paul's frown.

_Were you planning on keeping the truth a secret from your imprint?_ Paul demanded and Jared could easily feel Paul's outrage on Kim's behalf.

_No. I was going to finally do it the other day, actually. But then…Emily…_ Jared sighed heavily, before letting loose all of the thoughts that had been running through his head recently, _I was already worried about how Kim was going to react. Now she's going to be angry with me right off the bat, then I'm going to have to convince her the supernatural world is real and she's living in the middle of it and somehow keep her from being scared to death of what I'm capable of doing to her._

_She won't be scared of you_, Paul said after a moment's pause, but Jared could hear the uncertainty in his pack brother's thoughts.

_Hopefully_, Jared said noncommittally. Then, deciding to change the subject, _You should go home and rest, man; maybe eat something cooked for a change. I'm gonna be out here for a while, so I'll keep an eye on things._

_No arguments here_, Paul said swiftly, immediately setting course for his house._ My bed is definitely calling my name right now._

Within a matter of minutes, Jared was alone in his head once more. For the next three hours, Jared didn't move so much as an inch from his vantage point watching Kim's house. She was going to have to come home eventually. And he was going to be waiting for her when she did.

**a/n-Well, the moment of truth is here. After the last chapter, I was really, really hoping I'd get at least 5 reviews; it seemed like a pretty decent and semi-reasonable number to me. And then I ended up with 27, which is way beyond fantastic. So I just wanted to thank everyone, because your reviews were lovely, and wonderfully motivating. And I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter; more to come next Friday! (or sooner, if I can force myself to write faster!)**


	17. Chapter 17

**a/n-Shout out to the guest reviewer from a few hours ago who told me not to forget to post today...because I did forget until I got that review.**

**Chapter Seventeen**

When Kim woke up the next morning, she was momentarily confused to see Kylie sleeping in her bed just a few feet away. Wasn't she supposed to be at Gram's?

But then she also caught sight of the crutches propped against the wall on the other side of Kylie's bed, and the events of the previous day came rushing back to her.

Well, at least now she would have something to do besides watch Spanish soap operas all day.

Kim stood up from her bed with a stretch. She still felt exhausted from everything that went on the day before, but now that she was awake there was no way she would be able to fall back to sleep. A quick glance at the clock told Kim it was still early enough that Kylie wouldn't be waking up any time soon. In fact, Kylie was definitely more worn out from the hospital visit than Kim, so she would probably sleep even later than usual. And that meant Kim had plenty of time to shower.

Less than an hour later, Kim was in the middle of drying her hair when she heard someone knocking at the front door.

The knock made her pause.

It was very rare that someone would come to the Conweller house period. Really, their most frequent visitor was the mailman, and he certainly never needed to knock on the door. In fact, recently there was only one person…

_No._

Kim frowned as the knocking continued. Putting down the towel she'd been using to dry her hair and making sure her bathrobe was secured shut, Kim exited the bathroom and made her way to the front door, ignoring the feeling of déjà vu that overcame her as she did so.

Upon reaching the door, Kim paused briefly before turning the knob and pulling it open, only to slam it shut immediately once her suspicions were confirmed.

Jared was standing on the front porch.

"Kim?" She heard him call through the front door. "I know you're mad."

Kim couldn't help the snort that escaped at his words. Well that was an understatement. After five days she had definitely reached pissed off.

"And I definitely deserve it," Jared continued.

How did he even know she was still standing on the other side of the door? For all he knew, she could have walked away after slamming the door in his face. Actually, why _hadn't_ she walked away? _Why_ was she still standing here?

"I can explain, Kim," He said now. "I'll explain everything, I promise."

Kim's frown deepened at the familiar words. His promise to do just that was what had gotten them into this mess in the first place. With a sigh of disgust—both with Jared for his broken promises and herself for believing him—Kim turned away from the door to go back to her room. She knew she was over-reacting, she really did. But she also knew that there was a small part of her that had always doubted Jared. Sure, she'd suppressed it, because spending time with him was wonderful. _He_ was wonderful. But she could tell that there was a part of himself he was holding back; a part that kept him from being completely genuine.

And so, even though she'd been worried and hurt ever since Jared stood her up, she was also coming to the realization that she could be in control of whether or not she was hurt again. And so she decided to walk away. It was better this way.

And maybe if she repeated that to herself enough times she would actually believe that.

Twenty minutes later, Kim was dressed and ready for the day. Kylie on the other hand was still dead to the world. However…the little girl did tend to be attracted by the smell of food.

Kim smiled to herself. This was as good an excuse as any to cook that bacon her mom bought the last time they went grocery smile was wiped from her face, though, when she happened to glance out of the kitchen window several minutes later.

Jared's truck was still in the driveway.

Kim bit her lip. There were two choices here: she could ignore him or she could confront him. Okay, that was a lie. There was only one choice for her right now.

Nodding resolutely to herself, Kim placed the package of bacon on the counter and made her way to the front door for the second time that morning. This time when she pulled it open, however, rather than being face-to-face with Jared, he quite literally fell backwards at her feet. He must have been sitting against the door.

"What are you doing, Jared?" Kim asked as evenly as she could.

"Well I was sitting here waiting for you," Jared replied as he scrambled to his feet. "But I didn't hear you come to the door."

"What are you doing _here_, Jared?" Kim said pointedly.

"I told you," Jared said, "I want to explain what's going on…what I was supposed to tell you days aga, where I've been since then, everything."

"Did you not understand that I don't want to talk?"

"Well you didn't tell me to go away," Jared shrugged.

Kim's frown deepened and clearly Jared saw it because he hastened to continue, "Look Kim, please can you just let me explain? Let me explain and then if you still want me t-to go away then I…then I will."

Kim was fully prepared to shut the door in his face again; she had made up her mind and she was going to stick to it. And yet…it really wasn't fair to just write him off so quickly. He at least deserved to have her listen to him.

Okay, and maybe there was also the fact that, despite all of her doubts, Jared had never given her a _real_ reason to doubt him until his abrupt disappearance the other day. It was just her petty anger that made her shut the door in his face earlier.

He _really_ deserved the chance to explain.

Kim sighed and took a step back, pulling the door open wider.

"You can come in," She told him, and the look of utter relief that appeared on his face when she spoke only made her feel worse.

"Thank you, Kim!" Jared said earnestly as he walked into the house. "I promise there's an explanation for _everything_."

"I was, uh, just about to make breakfast for Kylie and I," Kim cursed herself for her slight stammer. She thought she was over her nerves where Jared was concerned! Then again, it was probably being in his presence again that was bringing it all back. She hated that his mere presence could do this to her! (and yet…she secretly loved it, too.) "We can talk in the, er, kitchen."

"Sounds good," Jared replied simply as Kim led the way. "So…er, Kylie's home, then?"

Kim nodded as she resumed her breakfast preparations, opening the fridge and pulling out the carton of eggs.

"She broke her leg yesterday and Gram just can't take care of her by herself; Mom thought it was best if Kylie came home until she's all healed."

"Oh," Jared said shortly, before the pair fell into an awkward silence.

For her part, even though Kim felt bad about her earlier actions she also refused to speak first now. The fact of the matter was she was completely confused about how to handle this situation.

There was no denying that she'd missed Jared since she last saw him. But then she was angry at herself for missing him and angry at him for being gone. And yet she was glad he was back but angry at herself again for being glad.

Being in her own head sometimes was pure torture.

"I—" Jared began suddenly, then stopped abruptly. He appeared to think things over for a moment before beginning again, "Kim, I owe you an apology for the other day. We made plans and I completely stood you up and that's just a completely shitty thing to have to deal with, and so I'm sorry. And I want you to know that the only reason that it happened was because there was a family emergency that I had to deal with."

Jared looked so earnest and apologetic that Kim could feel her heart going out to him. He seemed genuinely remorseful. There was one problem with his story, though…

"Your parents told me you were camping," Kim said flatly.

Immediately, Jared's brow furrowed. "When did you talk to my parents?"

"When I called your house looking for you," Kim replied, fighting through the blush that threatened to rise on her cheeks. When she said it like that it made her seem like a complete stalker. "Because I was worried about you," She clarified quickly.

"You were worried about me?" Jared questioned, and in Kim's opinion he looked entirely too pleased about that considering their current circumstances.

"I was," Kim said shortly, focusing on the eggs she was now beating. "Until I found out you stood me up to go camping with your friends. You could have just told me you wanted to go with Sam and Paul, I would have understood."

Kim glanced at Jared now to see that he was running his hand through his hair in apparent frustration.

"This is so messed up," Jared moaned. "Everything would be so much easier if—" He stopped abruptly then shook his head slightly. "But there's really no use worrying about it now; I can't change what already happened. Look, Kim, I'm not lying to you right now, no matter how much it might sound like it. This has everything to do with what I wanted to tell you the other day, and my parents don't know about any of it. It's a secret. That's why they thought I was camping, they don't know the truth; they aren't _allowed_ to know the truth."

"And I am?" Kim asked skeptically.

Jared nodded rapidly.

"Alright then," Kim said firmly, pushing her bowl aside and shifting to face him fully. "What's this big secret?"

"I'm a werewolf."


End file.
